Some Scars Never Fade
by haleyliz625
Summary: When Harry Potter defeated Voldemort in 1998, it seemed like nothing could ever go wrong again. However, years later, a Dark Mark is found over the home of one of his family members, and the battle begins again. But this time, it's not about him. Follow Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, and other new and old characters as the worst wizarding war ever is waged.
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**I know the description says this is a Scorose fic, and it is. But it isn't all about them. They are one of the two main power pairings, but other relationships in the story are also important and talked about. If you were looking for a fanfiction about Scorose and Scorose alone, I suggest you walk away now, because this is not that. However, I promise I will deliver some fantastic Scorose, with some really great other couples in there too. Trust me, I won't dupe you out of your Rose and Scorpius. They're literally my top OTP of all time. They'll be there. But this is just a heads up they are not THE main and only characters. THANKS! (:**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_Improbable Dreams and Harsh Realities_

Albus Severus Potter was not your average seventeen-year-old boy – but everyone knew that. He was the second of three children born to Harry and Ginny Potter, who were probably the most famous couple in the entire wizarding world. Not only was he their son, but he was named after two extremely powerful wizards: first - Albus Dumbledore, a proud Gryffindor, the previous headmaster of Hogwarts, defeater of Grindewald, the discoverer of the twelve different uses of dragon blood, a friend of Nicolas Flamel, the famous alchemist, the leader of the first and second Order of the Phoenix's and most importantly, the only man that Lord Voldemort ever feared. His second namesake was Severus Snape. Now, Snape was a very different character - for one thing, he was a Slytherin. All throughout Albus's dad's years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Snape taught Potions, there had been a huge animosity between them. Harry had hated Snape, and the feelings seemed to be mutual. However, after his death, at which he gave Harry some of his memories, it was learned that Snape had loved Harry's mother, Lily Evans-Potter, and had been trying to protect Harry the entire time.

So, when Albus, the nervous eleven-years-old, had asked his father what would happen if he became a Slytherin, his dad reassured him that it would be okay, because "the bravest man he ever knew," was a Slytherin too. Not that it had ended up mattering, anyways. Albus had arrived at Hogwarts with his cousin, and best friend, Rose Weasley, and they had both been sorted into Gryffindor house – to both of their reliefs. However, they had both soon realized that Slytherin's weren't as bad as they thought; although it did take some time. Albus became fast friends with Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Draco and Astoria Malfoy, who was in the same year as Rose and him. Rose was a little put off by this at first, but when Scorpius's younger sister Gemma came the year after, the two of them clicked and Rose and Scorpius managed to get to a civil level of toleration, although it never quite went past that. As Albus and Gemma put it, the two were too similar not to fight with each other. They were both extremely brainy and competitive, and they were always neck and neck for the top seat in class. If they tried, Albus was sure they could actually be good friends, but both of their prides were too big for that; so, they hung out for the sake of Albus and Gemma, but it wasn't rare for Scorpius to charm pebbles to bounce off of Rose's head, or for Rose to accidently spill her potion down the front of Scorpius's robes. Now, Harry and Ginny were automatically okay with the friendship between the four of them, as were Hermione and Astoria, but Ron and Draco were a little bit edgy. Eventually though, Astoria convinced Draco to let Scorpius and Gemma visit the Potter's for holidays; however, Scorpius had never stepped a foot in Ronald Weasley's home, and neither Rose nor Albus had ever been allowed to visit Malfoy Manor; but it was better than nothing.

Currently, Albus was lying in his bed in his dorm, located in the Gryffindor common room. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was around two in the morning. He wasn't surprised; this had been happening every night since he'd come back to school for his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He'd been having nightmares, every single night. And normally, that wouldn't frighten him at all. He was of age, he wasn't scared of a stupid dream, and he shouldn't be. After all, they were just dreams. Right? Albus wished he could have believed that. The nightmare was the same thing every time; he always knew what was coming. So why then did he wake up in cold sweats, a shiver running up his spine? Because he knew what story he was watching; everyone did. It was the story of his father's "death." Of course, he didn't really die. But he had thought he was going to. Everyone knew the story. Harry Potter watched Snape's memories, and found out that Voldemort had accidently made him one of his horcruxes, a part of his soul protected in another object. So by that logic, while Harry was alive, Voldemort couldn't die. On the night of the Battle of Hogwarts, Albus's dad had walked right into the forest and straight to Voldemort, sacrificing himself. Voldemort cast the curse and killed him, but his dad didn't die; because he had sacrificed himself, only the part of Voldemort's soul within him died. Harry came back to life and saved the day, end of story. All was well. Except, that wasn't how Albus's nightmares had ended.

The nightmare itself was like he was an outsider looking in and watching the events unfold. And that's how it stayed, right up until the point when Harry stepped out into the clearing, making himself openly available to be killed. In that moment, every time, the entire perspective of the dream shifted, and suddenly, it wasn't Harry standing there about to be murdered. It was Albus. Instead of feeling like he was safe and secluded, he felt the fear seize up in his body, and he was sure he had become his dad, because Voldemort was always staring directly at him. But every time, that wasn't the case. The red eyes of the snake like face would glint with slight confusion before a smile crept onto his tight, white lips. Like a movie set on replay, every night, Voldemort raised his wand, and whispered, "It's your turn, Albus Severus," so quietly that there was no way he should've been able to hear him, before mouthing the curse, which Albus could never hear because in that instant - everything would turn bright green – and then he would wake up. So, not exactly the most pleasurable dream ever. And he wouldn't think anything of it if he were normal. But, he wasn't. As the son of Harry Potter, the Chosen One, who was very well known for having prophetic dreams, it was a little difficult not to worry. There was no way that it didn't mean _something._ But what, he didn't know. "His turn?" - his turn to what? The only thing Albus could think of, though he didn't want to, was that it meant his death. That is what he'd seen – the death of his father - or, the almost death.

Albus felt a shiver run down his spine, as the fear that had been etched on his dad's face flashed in the front of his mind. His dad had always seemed untouchable to him, especially as a little kid. Harry Potter wasn't someone who got scared. Harry Potter was like a superhero, or at least that's how he'd always been portrayed to Albus. His dad was the star of every wild bedtime story that his mum had ever told him – tales of defeating mountain trolls and breaking into the Ministry of Magic; of killing basilisks and fighting off hundreds of dementors at once. This was the man who _killed Voldemort. _But the look of fear on his dad's face - that was undeniable, and if Harry James Potter could be that terrified, Albus couldn't help being frightened. _But, Voldemort is dead,_ Albus thought to himself. How could he forget that? His dad killed him; he was gone. There wasn't a threat anymore. Of course, there were the Death Eaters who were never caught: Bellatrix Lestrange, the Carrow twins, Fenrir Greyback, and a few other ones who weren't as infamous, but the majority of the Death Eater population had been captured and locked up in Azkaban for life, or murdered, fighting alongside their master. It wasn't a problem anymore; there was nothing to be scared off.

Albus lay back down on his pillow with a deep breath, drifting slowly back to sleep, and even though he told himself he wasn't scared anymore, his hands involuntarily clenched into tight fists as they rested on his pillow.

* * *

Harry Potter had aged a lot since the Battle of Hogwarts, over twenty years ago. He had married Ginny, had three children, become the head of the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic, but most importantly; he had been happy. Sure, there were common criminals, and every so often there were those random people who would try to rebel, but in reality, the peace that he, along with a combination of Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts' students, and a haphazard mass of the wizarding population, had brought had held strong for years. Nothing had ever disturbed it, because, well: Voldemort was dead, and without Voldemort himself, his leftover followers weren't really much use. They had nothing to rally behind, and alone, their power didn't even come close to matching Voldemort himself. So, it had been happy. He and Ginny got married, and so did Ron and Hermione. They had kids, who were all nearly grown up now, and they got to grow up happy, without the constant threat of torture and death looming over their heads. They got to have _good_, real childhoods, and nothing could have made Harry more happy. All the battles they fought had been finally worth it, because all the pain had been gone, permanently – until now.

The cold wind whipped around Harry, causing the ends of his robes to swish around him, but the weather wasn't important to him right now. Only one thing was – the mark floating in the sky above him. Everyone who had been alive during the last war knew it; how couldn't they? They had lived in constant fear of finding it floating above their workplace, their town, or their own home. As much as Harry wished it wasn't true, he couldn't deny what he saw with his own eyes. The green lights shimmering in the air were real. The twisting snake and the ominous skull were there, looming above his head. He couldn't pretend the news wasn't true anymore, not now that he saw it; the Dark Mark had been cast, right above the dwelling of Dudley Dursley and his family. Harry felt himself sinking to the sidewalk before he could stop it, unable to stand. Sure, he and Dudley had never exactly been close, but they didn't hate each other, and he was the only member of his blood family that was still alive and decent to him; his Aunt Petunia had passed two years ago, and his Uncle Vernon had never been exactly the most welcoming man. Dudley had been the only connection to his mother and father that Harry had left.

Trapped in his thoughts, Harry didn't notice at first when Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnigan came out of the house, their faces solemn. It wasn't until Ron clamped his hand on Harry's shoulder, sitting down next to him did he realize he wasn't alone.

Harry, who looked like already knew the answer, shakily started to say, "Are they all-" but Ron cut him off with a curt nod, not wanting him to have to finish the sentence. Harry didn't say anything, but his fists clenched tightly in his pockets, and underneath his glasses, his eyes were squinted tightly to halt back any tears that dared to attempt an escape.

Seamus sat down on Harry's other side, holding a bundle of cloth in his lap, and a dark expression on his face. He passed the cloth over to Harry, not saying anything other than, "Ron recognized it, even though he won't admit to me. I saw his face when he saw it, it looked like he'd been shocked. Maybe he can explain what it is."

Harry stared down at the wrapped up fabric, almost terrified to unwrap it and see what it held. Enough had already happened tonight, how could it possibly get worse? any Instead, he looked up at Ron, asking, "What is this?"

Ron bit his lip, running a hand through what was left of his bright red hair; his hairline didn't quite come as far as it used to. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then just as quickly closed it and instead reached over and opened the bundle himself, without a word. However, as soon as the contents were revealed, Ron's body went stiff.

Harry however, looked like he'd been struck by lightning. He picked up the familiar tiny, silver dagger in his hand, stunned and he stared at for what seemed like ages before questioning in a low whisper, "Bellatrix? Bellatrix Lestrange?" Ron just nodded, and Seamus's jaw dropped as he understood their reactions. Harry turned to Ron, his voice sharper. "How? How is this even possible? She's been AWOL since the Battle of Hogwarts; no one has heard a word about her since then. We all figured she tried to hide out and didn't make it on her own. How could it possibly be her, Ron?"

Ron looked at a loss for words, and Harry knew why. Sure, Harry hated Bellatrix Lestrange; how couldn't he? She was second-in-command to Voldemort, but Ron had a personal reason to loathe her. Harry shuddered as he remembered the day he knew they were both thinking of; being captured by Snatchers, abused, locked in the dark, cold cellar, and hearing Hermione screaming, being tortured by Bellatrix and by the very knife that was now in Harry's hands, and being able to do nothing about it.

Seamus seemed to notice that they needed a minute alone, and left with a quick, "I'm going to go check with the other Aurors who came; see if there's anything else to do before we close up."

As soon as he was gone, Harry repeated himself. "Ron, this isn't possible. She's been missing for two decades, how could she just wander into a Ministry-monitored Muggle neighborhood, kill a family, cast the Dark Mark and _not_ get caught?" Harry was grasping for straws with this, and they both knew it. This was Bellatrix; she might not have been Voldemort himself, but she was as close as you could get it.

"Harry, who else could it be?" Ron answered, his voice strained. "No one else has a dagger like that," he finished, with a look of disgust towards the object, now resting in Harry's lap again. Ron's eyes suddenly became frightened, and he looked back up at Harry as he asked, "_He_ can't be back, can he?"

Harry knew who he was talking about immediately and shook his head, causing Ron to sigh in relief. "No, Voldemort _is_ dead. That can't change. This, this is someone else."

Ron nodded and said, "I'll take that thing over to evidence and then we're going to my house." Harry raised his eyebrows and tried to say he had to go home and explain to Ginny what happened but Ron cut him off, saying, "I'll owl Ginny. If we don't fill Hermione in on this immediately, you know she'll have both our heads. Anyways, it doesn't matter if she works in the boring old Law Enforcement Department or not; you and I both know if this is starting again, we're still not going to last one day without her."

Ron looked at him seriously, but after a second they both laughed, in spite of everything. Harry nodded and said, "Alright, I'll be over in a minute." Ron waved, and stood up, wandering to where Seamus and the other Aurors were. Harry followed suit, standing up and looking up to the sky, and the artificial green stars shined brightly off his eyes. He was scared, and Ron was too, even if he wouldn't admit to anyone but Harry. But, he would be lying if he said he'd never expected something like this to happen again. Sighing, he turned away from the Dark Mark and Dudley's house, walking towards Ron, and maybe it was just nerves, but Harry could've sworn he felt his long dormant lightning scar twinge, even if just a little.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Audacious Adolescents and Anxious Adults_

Rose Jane Weasley was not the type of girl who could be taken advantage of. As the oldest child of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, she was determined, strong-willed, intelligent, and very, _very_ stubborn. She had the curls of her mother, with the tall build of her father, measuring in at 5'9." Her hair was a mix of her mother's soft mousy color and her father's bright red, leaving it at a mellow orange shade that shined scarlet in the right lighting. Her eyes were bright blue, just like her dad's, but there was one Weasley trait she was glad that she lacked – the freckles. She was the offspring of two-thirds of the Golden Trio who had brought about the salvation of the Wizarding World; there wasn't a sane soul on the campus of Hogwarts, let alone in the world, who dared mess with her. Except, of course, her cousin Albus's best friend in the whole world, Scorpius Malfoy. Their acquaintanceship was a very tricky subject, one that she herself didn't even completely understand. She didn't exactly like him, but she didn't hate him either. Rose would've never known that if Albus hadn't practically forced her to be decent to him, not that she would ever admit that to him. But as much as Scorpius pissed her off, daily, he provided her with the one thing that no one else in the school could give her: a good challenge. Rose knew she was smart, and she knew if it weren't for Scorpius she would be the top of her class without even trying, but he was just as smart as she was – another thing she would never admit to anyone. His intelligence helped her push herself though, and their constant fighting and battling, while annoying now, was the main factor that caused Rose to be certain she would get the Ministry job she was applying for, and a few she wasn't.

_Maybe one day, far, far in the future, when we both have gotten married and have had children, I'll thank him_, Rose thought to herself, before snorting loudly. No, that would never happen. As soon as they were done with this school year, Rose could finally be free of the pressure, and wouldn't have to deal with the fact that Scorpius Malfoy wasn't actually as awful a guy as she wanted him to be. Yawning, Rose got out of her bed and slammed the alarm on her little clock by her bed: 7 AM. She got dressed quickly and walked downstairs so she could catch Albus before he went to breakfast; he was an early riser and never waited for her past 7:15. When Rose descended the last flight of stairs though, Albus wasn't standing by the portrait hole, glaring at her playfully like she had expected. At first she assumed he'd left earlier than usual, and was about to get angry when she spotted him sitting by himself in one of the big plush chairs by the fire. He was leaning forward, his head in his hands, and Rose was fairly sure he hadn't even noticed that she had come down the stairs.

Puzzled, she walked over to him, plopping down on the arm of his chair and saying, "Albus?" No response. Slightly worried, Rose shook his shoulder and repeated his name again. "Albus, are you okay?"

Albus started at her touch, looking up at her in surprise, and she could tell he definitely had no clue she had been sitting there in the first place. His bright green eyes didn't seem as happy as usual; it seemed like he was hiding something as he responded quietly, "Yeah, I'm fine, do you want to go to breakfast now?"

He tried to stand up, but Rose got in front of him, pushing him back down in his seat, sitting down on the edge of the table in front of him. "Uh-uh. Tell me what's wrong now, Albus Severus. You haven't laughed at the fact that my hair looks like a hippogriff tried to make a nest in it; there's obviously something up."

Albus chuckled a little, but stopped abruptly when he saw the glare Rose was giving him. Sighing, he began "I've been having nightmares." Rose looked like she was about to say something sarcastic, so he put his hand up to silence her and continued, "I know, dreams are just dreams but, these aren't. It's the same one every time, and I'm not talking about dreaming about repeatedly shagging the same girl," Rose made a face, but Albus carried on, "I've been dreaming about my dad's fake death. When he sacrificed himself to Voldemort. Except, when he steps into the clearing, I'm not watching the scene anymore, and it seems like I've, I don't know, _become_ my dad? Because Voldemort stares right at me, but he knows I'm not my dad and then I do too, because he says the same thing every time." Rose was now looking at her cousin like he'd gone completely insane, but she let him finish, "He says, 'It's your turn now, Albus,' and then he casts the Killing Curse and I wake up. Every night since we got back to school from summer break." Albus sighed, leaning back in the chair.

Rose sat there for a minute before saying, "Albus, it's the middle of November. We've been back at school for over two months now…are you saying you've been having this dream every night since September 1st?" Albus nodded, and Rose pursed her lips, asking, "Why didn't you say anything until now?"

Albus shrugged and said, "I thought it was stupid and it was just a scary nightmare, but now I'm not so sure. Dreams like this would be creepy enough if I wasn't-"

"…If you weren't the son of Harry Potter, who's nightmares were influenced by a Horcrux inside of him from the darkest wizard of all time. Yeah," Rose finished for him, putting her head in her hands. "As the daughter of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, this is probably the part where I'm supposed to tell you that you're just being silly and this doesn't actually mean anything," Rose paused and looked up at him, "But you and I both know, there's no way that can be the case, no matter how much I think dream-reading and Divination in general is completely idiotic.

Albus nodded and said, "I figured you would say something like that. What are we going to do?"

Rose honestly didn't have an answer for him. If this were anything like what had happened to their parents, the correct answer definitely wouldn't be good. But she couldn't say that, not when Albus looked so worried and scared. So, she came up with a short-term solution.

"We are going to go eat breakfast, and none of our family members or lovely Malfoy pals are going to hear about this until we have disclosed more information on it. Got it?" Rose stated, standing up and pulling Albus up with her.

Albus grinned at her and nodded, replying "Yes, sir," and wrapping his arm around his favorite cousin before she could smack him on the side of the head.

By the time Rose and Albus made it to the Great Hall, Gemma and Scorpius were already seated at the Slytherin table, so they walked over and sat across from them. Twenty years ago, this would've been absolutely scandalous, but ever since the Battle of Hogwarts, the separation of the houses by tables was only ever really enforced on the days before Quidditch games or the first and last days of school. When Rose and Albus sat down, Scorpius and Gemma were already eating. Scorpius didn't lift his steely grey eyes from his food, and his pale blonde hair was, per usual, messy, but every other aspect of his appearance was pristinely perfect, as every Malfoy was supposed to be: straight tie, perfectly pressed robes, and aside for his messy hair, not a thing out of place. Gemma was the complete opposite. Her dark blonde hair was clipped up and her bangs fell into warm, brown eyes, which were deeply lined in onyx eyeliner. Her tie hung over her slightly unbuttoned shirt, yet to be tied for the day, and her too-short black skirt looked like it had been pulled out from underneath her bed. Beneath her dress code breaking, black-biker boots, she had on her fishnet tights that got her looks from the guys of any and all houses. Of course, all of these clothing choices were charmed – the professors saw them as her normal school uniform. Sure, Gemma was daring, but she wasn't stupid. This was one of the many reasons that she was Rose's best friend; she wasn't what anyone had expected out of the daughter of Draco Malfoy.

As she dropped waffles onto her plate, Rose gave Gemma a pointed look. "I see the fishnets. What homework did you forget to do today, Gem?"

Gemma snickered and winked at her friend, "What are you possibly talking about? I do all my homework, but Ryan Clearwater might have told me he wanted to talk to me about Potions and broom closets, so I will have to see what that is all about."

Scorpius looked up at Rose and Gemma, an angry look on his face, but he didn't say anything. The sight of this caused Rose's lips to tug into a small smile, which Scorpius sighted and glared at, looking back down at his food. What Scorpius, or anyone besides her and Gemma, didn't realize was that Gemma's entire image was exactly that – an image. Sure, she'd put on a show on Hogsmeade weekends, with v-cuts so low and skirt lines so high it almost didn't seem like she was clothed at all, but she never acted on the promiscuous aura she put out. Why? Because she knew that it annoyed the crap out of Scorpius. Personally, Rose didn't get the big deal, but it was amusing to her, so she'd gone along with it since third year, when Gemma had bought her first leather mini-skirt together. And anyways, it wasn't like she had some deep loyalty to Scorpius that would make her feel bad about it; she couldn't care less what did or didn't upset Scorpius Malfoy. Gemma and her mother, Astoria, were the only Malfoy's that Rose ever wanted to have close personal relations with, and she planned on keeping it that way.

"Where the hell is Al going?" Gemma asked suddenly, her voice confused.

Her exclamation pulled Rose out of her thought, and when she looked to her side, Al had in fact disappeared. "Huh," she mumbled, "I don't know. Did he say anything?" At this, Scorpius snorted under his breath, rolling his silver eyes. Rose glowered at him and snapped, "What is so funny, Malfoy?"

Scorpius looked up at her with a smirk on his face, his eyebrows raised. "Maybe he's just as sick of hearing about my sister's life as a streetwalker as I am, Weasel-bee." Rose opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off. "You can ponder your cousin's problems later, Red, we have to go to Transfiguration." Without so much as a glance at either of them, Scorpius stalked out of the Hall. Rose huffed angrily, standing up and waving a goodbye to a now downtrodden looking Gemma, and followed Scorpius's retreating figure.

* * *

_**4 hours before…**_

Hermione Granger-Weasley was past the point of worried; she as absolutely vexed. Pacing around the family room of her and Ron's house, she glanced up at their wall clock: 3 AM. Any normal day, Hermione wouldn't be this worried; after all, when your husband is an Auror, you tend to get used to the late and random hours. However, this time Hermione knew exactly where he was; she just had no clue what was going on. She pulled the scrap of paper, obviously torn from a larger piece, out of her pocket, and unfolded the message she'd already memorized.

_Hermione,  
There was a disturbance in the Dursley's neighborhood and they don't know what it is, but it's bad._

_Harry, Seamus and I are going to check it out. _

_Probably won't take too long; should be back around 1:00 AM._

_Love you,_

_Ron_

Hermione knew that Ron was never exactly the best with time, but he was two hours late, and according to the owl she'd received from Ginny half an hour ago, nothing had been heard from Harry either. She stopped pacing and crumpled up the note, throwing it against the wall in front of her and sinking down onto the floor, leaning against the side of the couch. Hermione never broke down, but right now she couldn't help it. She had that feeling, the deep feeling in the pit of her stomach, that came when she knew very well she was in danger; it was a sensation she hadn't felt in years, more specifically, over twenty years. Hermione didn't want to admit it to herself, but she knew, like she always knew everything, that this wasn't just an incompetent idiot trying to cause havoc. The target had been Dudley Dursley's house, and aside from his relation to Harry, there wasn't anything important or relevant about Dudley. He worked in an office building; he wasn't feeding homeless children in Africa. No one in the Muggle world knew or cared who he was, so Hermione knew that this had to be someone magical, and someone dark.

Before she could even get a proper moment to think about what had occurred at Dursley residence that night, she heard the familiar _crack_ of apparition in the front yard, and let out a choked sob. By the time she had jumped to her feet and rushed to the door, Ron was opening it and pulling her into his arms, burying his face in her bushy brown hair. They stood like that for a while, wrapped tightly in each other, before Harry coughed awkwardly, making a face. Some things never changed.

Hermione pulled herself away from Ron; his arm was still wrapped around her waist as she said, "Let's sit down. I feel like we have a lot to talk about." Ron let out a bitter chuckle and Harry nodded solemnly as they all sat down around Ron and Hermione's kitchen table. "Alright," Hermione said, looking between the two of them. "What happened?"

Ron and Harry glanced at each other for a second before Harry said, "Dudley and his family are dead." Hermione put her hand over her mouth, shocked, and Harry continued, pulling out the cloth bundle from his coat pocket, saying, "and Seamus found this inside the house."

He set the bundle down on the table, pushing it towards Hermione. Confused, she took it, slowly unfolding it to reveal what was inside. At the sight of the dagger, Hermione gasped audibly, and her chair made a squeaking noise as she scooted away from the table. Taking a breath, she whispered, "Is that…is that Bellatrix's?" Harry and Ron both nodded, Ron reaching over to her and grabbing her hand, and Hermione gripped onto him tightly as her eyebrows creased. "So does that mean-"

"Yes," Harry interrupted her, "Bellatrix killed Dudley and his family." Hermione stared at him for a second before getting up suddenly and running up the stairs without a word. Harry raised his eyebrows, turning to Ron. "Where is she going?" he asked him, confused.

Ron shrugged and said, "I'm gonna guess getting a book." At that moment, she ran back into the room, two books in her arms. Ron nodded contently.

"Harry, do you remember any Muggle history from before we went to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked, flipping through what Harry and Ron now saw was a World History textbook – not exactly what they'd expected.

Harry nodded slowly, saying, "Yeah, a bit. The wars and that kind of thing. Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

Hermione pointed to the middle of a page, flipping the book around to show them. "Because this kind of thing happens in the Muggle world too. Look," she said, pointing at a photo of a group of people in German Nazi uniforms.

Harry stared at her incredulously. "Nazis? What?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, moving her finger to the caption next to the photo. "Not the actual Nazis, the American Nazi Party. Even though the Nazis did horrible, awful things in the past, due to freedom of speech, people can still demonstrate and show their support, as long as they don't do anything illegal."

Ron looked confused, and Harry shook his head. "That's sick," he muttered, "But what does that have to do with Bellatrix? Murder is a hell of a lot more than a demonstration and some picket signs."

Hermione nodded, closing the textbook and grabbing the other one, _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts._ "Exactly. That's why I looked in here, to see if the same sorts of rules apply in the Wizarding World, and they do. You can demonstrate, but you can't do anything illegal. However, there have been incidents in the past when peaceful groups acted out and acted on their beliefs."

"Obviously," Ron said sarcastically. "We figured that out. What does this prove?"

Hermione stared directly at him, her eyes tight as she said, "Not once has a group acted out without huge numbers behind them. If Bellatrix feels safe enough to go into a Ministry-monitored neighborhood, then we can make a safe bet that she isn't alone."

Ron gulped and Harry asked the most prominent question. "What are we going to do?"

Hermione bit her lip and said, "You're going to go home and calm Ginny down, because if she hasn't had a complete fit yet I would be surprised. Then you're going to owl any Order of the Phoenix members you can think of. Ron and I will take Dumbledore's Army."

Harry looked at her, a detached look in his eye. "You think this is going to turn into war? Like last time?"

Hermione shook her head, saying quietly, "I don't think. I know."


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTHORS NOTE:**

**Hey guys! Sorry this took so long to update; I've had a lot of schoolwork on my plate. So for those of you have been waiting, here's our first little dose of Scorose! Hope you enjoy(: **

* * *

**Chapter 3**

_Demeaning Disturbances and Curious Communications_

Scorpius Malfoy was honestly sick of Rose Weasley and her crap. Even though he wasn't mad at anything she was actually doing, it felt better to take his anger out on her. Really, he was mad at Gemma. Everyone knew that she couldn't keep her clothes on long enough to speak a sentence, but that didn't mean he wanted to hear about it. In all honesty, Rose could actually be quite pleasant if she wasn't snickering about some guy his sister had hooked up with in front of him.

Maybe, just maybe Scorpius wouldn't loathe her so much if they would ever shut up about it. That's what his best friend Albus said, anyways. Al had this theory that if Scorpius would get over his "ego" and Rose would learn to shut her mouth, they would be good friends and would, as Al put it, "get along really well." Scorpius would typically reply that Albus was completely insane, and the topic would be dropped, but he would be lying if he said he'd never thought about it.

Sure, Weasley was aggravating, obnoxious, egotistical and brash, but she was the only person in school that he could actually compete with. Scorpius was brilliant and he knew it, but Rose provided him with the need to fight for his spot at top in the class. The days when she got higher grades would push him to work even harder; especially because whenever this happened, she would gloat for hours.

"Malfoy, can you hurry it up? I know you're slow in the head, but that doesn't mean I want to be late for class," Rose's high-pitched voice snapped from a few feet in front of him.

"Feel free to go on without me, Weasley," he replied, taking his time. "Maybe you can feel like a smart person for a little bit while I'm not there."

She turned around, glaring. "I'd be the smartest person in there whether you were there or not, Malfoy."

Scorpius shrugged, leaning against the wall. "That's highly debatable, and debating is just another thing I excel in, so I wouldn't try to beat me there."

She rolled her eyes and turned around, calling over her shoulder, "I'm going to class. If you and your fat ego would ever like to join me, they might actually get me as a partner instead of whatever Hufflepuff is late."

Snickering, he jogged over and joined her, walking at her pace again. "Alright, alright, Weasley. You got me, you're right. It wouldn't be fair for me to partner up with a Hufflepuff; they wouldn't stand a fighting chance against my brilliance."

Rose snorted, not looking up as she pushed open the door to the Transfiguration classroom. "You are completely insufferable."

Scorpius shrugged, sliding into his seat and putting his bag on the floor next to hers as they sat down at their desk. "That's another debatable topic."

She rolled her eyes, looking over at him and saying, "That, Malfoy, is a debate I would win. I have a lot of factual support."

He laughed to himself, not bothering to retort because at that moment Professor Smith walked in, saying, "We're doing practical Transfiguration today, so go with your partner and find an open space to practice in."

Rose hopped out of her seat and walked over to an empty space in front of Professor Smith's desk, waving her hand at him and calling, "Come on, Blondie, it's time for me to wipe the floor with you."

Scorpius strutted over, his eyebrows raised. "See, I was thinking it would be more you getting the crap beaten out of you, Weasley," he said, pulling out his wand and pointing it at her.

"We're not starting yet, Malfoy, wand away," Professor Smith snapped, stopping in front of the two of them. "No one is fighting anyone; this is Transfiguration, not Defense Against the Dark Arts. We're practicing Disillusionment Charms, and that is it."

Rose smirked at Scorpius as Professor Smith walked back to the center of the room. "You will each take turns casting the charm on your partner. The charm itself is very simple if you aren't a complete imbecile – there isn't an actual incantation, you simply tap your target and imagine them not being there anymore. This charm is all about concentration so I don't have very high hopes for this class, but please give it your best attempt."

He looked around the room as he said, "We will go in backwards alphabetical order, so Wood, Weasley, Nott, and Zabini, you'll start in your groups, and then Abbott, Malfoy, Longbottom and Finnigan, you will go. Understood?" All of the students nodded, so Professor Smith sat down at his desk, put his feet up, and said, "Begin," before pulling out a magazine.

Scorpius looked over at Rose to say something, but he noticed she had an intense look of concentration of her face. "Uh, Weasley? Why do you look constipated?"

She looked up at him angrily. "I'm trying to imagine you disappearing. It's not working."

He laughed, walking closer to her and pointing at his chest. "You have to actually tap me, remember? Come on, Weasley, at least act like you're not an idiot."

"Shut up, Malfoy," Rose growled, her eyebrows creased in annoyance. Scorpius couldn't help but laugh; she was hilarious when she was upset. Sure, Rose was tall for a girl, but Scorpius was taller at 6'4." She looked like she was about to shoot steam out of her ears, and he was so amused by this he didn't notice when she tapped him on the head with her wand, until he felt the cool drizzle of what he knew was the charm, although it felt like she had cracked an egg on his hair.

He looked down at himself and saw that he had almost completely disappeared. He was transparent, but the slight outline of his body was still noticeable if he looked close enough. "Not bad, Weasley," he said mockingly. "But I'm sure I'll do better."

She tapped the outline of his head and he reappeared. "Yeah, we'll see about that," she said, crossing her arms and looking at him expectantly.

Scorpius walked towards her, picturing her disappearing in his mind. He reached forward and tapped the top of her head, closing his eyes and hoping that would help. He heard her screech, and opened his eyes to laugh, assuming that he'd made her disappear fully. Instead, Rose Weasley stood in front of him in nothing but her hot pink bra and underwear.

"MALFOY, WHAT THE HELL? GIVE ME MY CLOTHES BACK!" she yelled, trying to simultaneously smack him and cover herself.

Scorpius however was frozen, with his mouth gaping open as Rose beat his chest repeatedly. This was definitely not what he had been attempting to do. All he was doing was imagining her disappear, but apparently he hadn't gotten past clothing when he tapped her head.

He didn't move until Professor Smith had undone the spell and was yelling at him too. "Malfoy! This is completely inappropriate behavior. And Weasley, despite being humiliated your reaction was utterly unacceptable. I want you both in my office on Friday at 9'oclock for detention. No exceptions."

At that moment, the bell rang and the rest of the class rushed out along with Professor Smith, but Scorpius and Rose remained where they were standing, not saying anything. Rose's arms were crossed over her chest, her lips pursed tightly, and Scorpius was staring at her blankly. The tension in the air was so thick, Scorpius could've cut it, but neither of them moved, so he had to say something.

"I didn't mean to take your clothes off," he started awkwardly.

"Brilliant."

"Weasley, seriously-" he started again, but Rose cut him off.

"No, Scorpius, it's fine. Don't worry your pretty little blonde head over it. I just showed my underwear to half the seventh year class and Professor Smith, but it's fine." Her glare was piercing, and he was slightly worried she was going to burn a hole through him, but one thing she had said stuck out to him.

"You called me Scorpius," he said slowly, his eyebrows slightly inclined.

Her eyes flashed, but she brushed it off. "So? That's your name."

"Yeah," Scorpius said gradually, "But you never call me that. It's typically Malfoy or asshole."

"I don't see why it matters what I call you." Rose's voice seemed sure, but Scorpius could tell from the way her fingers were now digging into her arms that she hadn't meant to call him by his first name. Hm.

"Alright, Weasley. I am sorry. If I'd meant to strip you in front of the class, I wouldn't be apologizing about it and you know it." Scorpius looked at her, trying to appear sincere, because he was. Sincerity just wasn't an emotion he normally tried to express.

She didn't make eye contact with him, staring down at her shoes, but mumbled, "Yeah, whatever. I'll see you in detention, I guess." before rushing out the door without a backwards glance.

He stood there, watching the door she'd just walked out of. He honestly hadn't meant to humiliate her, but it seemed as though something had changed between them because of it. She had called him Scorpius, and it clearly wasn't intentional. And he, he actually felt sorry, and that was an emotion that Scorpius Malfoy _never _felt.

Shaking his head, he walked out of the classroom, still unsure of what had just occurred.

* * *

Draco Malfoy yawned widely as sat up in his bed, the sunlight streaming into his huge master bedroom. Looking to his left he saw his wife, Astoria, still snuggled into her pillow, her dark blonde hair splayed all over her face. Smiling, he got out of bed and went over to his closet to get dressed for work.

After graduating Hogwarts, Draco had surprised everyone, by straying away from the Ministry position that had been expected of him and becoming a Healer. To everyone's shock, he had done exceedingly well and was now the head of the Creature-Induced Injuries floor of St. Mungo's.

His wife Astoria, worked in Magical Law Enforcement with Hermione Granger-Weasley, which was one of the reasons that their children's friendship with the Potter's and Weasley's wasn't completely disbanded by Draco. Astoria had known perfectly well how much he hated the trio, but after she joined the department, she had become fast friends with Hermione and had insisted that Draco be okay with their children's friendship. Draco, of course, couldn't say no – Astoria was the one person he could never really refuse, as much has he did try.

Shaking his head, he went down the stairs quietly so he wouldn't wake Astoria; she was sick and was staying home from work, so she needed the rest. Draco walked into the kitchen and started making coffee, leaning against the counter as he waited for it to be ready.

At that moment, he heard a tapping on the window and saw an owl that he didn't recognize sitting outside his window. Draco opened the window and let the owl jump in and perch on the top of one of the kitchen chairs after it dropped a rolled up parchment on his table. _Malfoy_ was written messily on the top, in an untidy script that seemed slightly familiar to Draco. Sitting down in the chair that the owl wasn't occupying, he unrolled the letter and glanced at the bottomto see who had sent it: _Harry Potter_. Draco's eyebrows rose into his receding hairline, and he dropped the letter on the table in shock before starting to read it. Why was Potter sending him a letter? The last time this had happened, it had been Scorpius's 3rd year and Potter had wanted to invite him to go the World Cup with his son and him. Other than that, they never communicated.

Draco was about to begin reading the letter again but was distracted by a quiet call from the stairs.

"Draco?"

Astoria stumbled into the kitchen, her dark blonde hair pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head, wrapped in a dark green silk robe. Her voice was scratchy from her cough, and her nose was stuffy but other than that, she seemed okay. She sat down across from him as he sighed.

"Story, love, I told you to sleep today."

Astoria shrugged. "I know, but I heard you moving around down here and I couldn't get back to sleep." At that moment she noticed the open letter and looked at him curiously. "What's that?"

Draco chuckled quietly and said, "A letter from Harry Potter. Would you like to read it? I haven't yet."

She grabbed it, picking it up and reading out loud. "_'Malfoy, You know I wouldn't be sending this to you if it wasn't important, but you're not in the Auror department so you wouldn't be allowed to hear about this until its headline news. My cousin Dudley is dead.'_" Astoria paused, looking up at Draco worriedly. "Why is he telling this to you?" He shrugged, so she continued. "Alright, where was I…okay, got it. _'Ron and Seamus Finnigan were searching his house, and they found a dagger – Bellatrix Lestrange's dagger.'" _At this, Draco froze, but she continued._ "'She's back, somehow, and I don't know what we're going to do, but seeing as you're related to her, I feel like she'd come for your house as a safe stop. Hermione thinks she's planning war, Malfoy. This is serious. If you know anything please let me know. Harry Potter.'_"

Astoria put the letter down on the table and the two of them both sat in silence for about thirty seconds before Draco picked the parchment up, reading over it himself and mouthing it as he read. When he was finished, he laid it back down and put his head in his hands, not saying anything.

"Draco?" Astoria questioned quietly, moving to the seat next to him and shooing the owl that was still perched there to another one. She grabbed at his hand, forcing him to lift his head and look at her. Intertwining her fingers with his she asked, "Draco, do you think it's true? That your aunt is back?"

He looked at her, his forehead creased with stress and nodded. "I knew she would eventually. I just hoped against all hell that she wouldn't."

She took a deep breath, squeezing on his hand lightly, and he gripped her back. "What are we going to do?" she questioned, forcing him to keep talking.

Draco shook his head, dropping her hand and going to pour the coffee. "I don't know, Story. I honestly don't. Potter's right though; if she doesn't come here, she'll go to my parent's house."

Astoria stood up and walked over to him, grabbing the coffee mug that he had poured for her. "Draco, Potter said war. Does he mean like last time?"

He nodded, sipping from his mug. "He wouldn't have told me otherwise."

Astoria bit her lip nervously and whispered, "Then, what are we going to do about Scorpius and Gemma?"

Draco's face grew dark and he was quiet for a minute before he said, "There's nothing we can do about it, Story."

"We could pull them out of -" she started, but he cut her off.

"No we couldn't. That would draw attention to the fact that something was wrong, it would end up in the Prophet, and Bellatrix would know that we know."

Astoria sighed, her eyebrows crinkled. "Draco, if it gets as bad as last time-"

"No." He stopped her again, gripping on to the counter next to them tightly. "It won't, and even if it does, it won't affect them. The battle only happened at Hogwarts last time because Potter was there. Bellatrix has no reason to go there; they'll be fine. This isn't their fight." Draco looked at Astoria intensely, moving his hand to hers and holding her hand strongly. "Got it?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter where it is. Scorpius is of age; we can't stop him from fighting. And Gemma will be damned if she doesn't try to help, and you know very well what side they'll be helping. What we believe now isn't the point; once this breaks out, Bellatrix will come here and you and I both know it. If we want to be safe we don't have a choice what we're fighting for. Scorpius and Gemma do, and you know what they'll choose."

"Then we won't give them a choice," Draco said firmly. Astoria looked puzzled, but he continued. "I'll go write them both letters now and explain the situation. They aren't idiots; they're not going to choose their friends over their lives." He leaned down and kissed his wife gently before finishing, "Don't worry, Story. This won't even be a problem." Astoria tried to say something else, but he cut her off with a kiss again. "It's going to be fine. Understood?"

She nodded, giving up her protest. "Understood."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_Troubling Feelings and Early Arrivals_

Gemma Malfoy knew that Rose and Scorpius _never_ got along. But that didn't explain the fact that they wouldn't look each other in the eye, like, at all. Typically, they spent the entire lunch hour bickering with each other and charming food to fly into each other's faces, but currently the two of them were sitting in complete silence, Rose next to Gemma, and Scorpius across from them, next to another quiet one, Albus.

That was another problem Gemma was worrying about. Since breakfast that morning, Albus hadn't said a word to any of them, especially not her. She acted like it didn't bug her, but really it had cut deeply, because it meant that her entire plan had backfired. As far as Rose knew, Gemma's "slut" act was just to annoy her big brother, but it actually had a much bigger purpose: to make Albus jealous. No one knew that she liked him, and she liked it that way fine, but at this point she seemed to have completely screwed it up.

Gemma had liked Albus since her first year at Hogwarts, but then again, what girl didn't like him? He was Albus Potter, son of Harry Potter, with those beautiful green eyes and swooping black hair, tall, muscular and the star seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team; he was literally the poster boy for perfect crush material. So, Gemma became friends with him, through Rose and Scorpius, and the four of them had become practically inseparable; except, completely platonically. So, in her third year, Gemma went through a total makeover – black eyeliner, tight clothes, dangerous necklines and a reputation. Rose helped her a lot with that part, because in all honesty, Gemma hadn't ever even kissed a boy. Her best friend however was very good at Confundus charms, so over the past three years, she had "convinced" around forty guys that they had took part in intimate relations with her.

Gemma couldn't have done it more perfectly; all the girls envied her, and all the guys wanted her – except for the one _she_ wanted. Albus had never really been amused or entertained by her promiscuous antics. Every guy in school loved to follow her around when she put on her V-neck's, but he seemed to prefer her when she was wrapped up in winter clothes and wiping the snowball he'd thrown at her off her face. She'd never really understood that, not until now at least. Albus's reaction this morning was something new. Normally he just zoned out when her activities were mentioned, but storming out angrily? That never happened, and it was definitely not the reaction that Gemma had been trying to elicit from him.

So as they sat at the lunch table in complete silence, she decided that this was not going to stand. "Alright, all three of you talk," she snapped, glaring at them individually.

Rose, Scorpius and Albus all stared at her like she had dyed her hair purple, but she continued. "This is absolutely ridiculous. You three are the most talkative people I know and you're sitting there not saying a word."

Gemma looked directly at Rose and Scorpius and asked, "Why aren't you two fighting with each other? Scorpius, please tell Rose she looks ugly or something, this is completely unnerving. And you!" she exclaimed, looking at Albus. "Please, ramble to Scorpius about some Quidditch play that Rose and I won't understand! I cannot stand this silence."

Rose was the first to speak. "We're just eating, Gemma, it's no big deal."

Scorpius added on, not looking at Rose. "Yeah, we don't need to speak to eat."

Gemma looked at Albus expectantly, but he said nothing, not looking her in the eye. Frustrated, she turned back to her brother and best friend. "That's not an excuse for you two. You'd yell at each other if you were strung upside down by your toenails. Eating is not a valid reason to not bicker."

Scorpius rolled his eyes and sighed, "I'm not in the mood to fight with Rose right now, okay?"

Gemma's eyebrows raised into her hair, Rose blushed and even Albus looked up. "I'm sorry, you're not in the mood to fight with _who?_" Gemma questioned, in shock.

Scorpius looked down, not saying anything, and Albus cut in. "I have to go study, I'm going to the library." He got up and walked away without another word, and Rose and Scorpius continued to sit in silence.

"Are you kidding me?!" Gemma exclaimed, looking between the two of them. "Fine, you two are left. Tell me what's going on between you two. Now." She glowered at them both, trying to make them flinch, but it didn't work.

"It's nothing, Gemma," Rose said, and Scorpius nodded without looking at either girl.

"Nothing happened," he mumbled, picking at his food.

"Oh, yes I can definitely tell how much nothing happened by the way none of you will look at me or each other. Absolutely _nothing_ is wrong!" Gemma exclaimed, slamming her hands down on the table.

"Gemma," Scorpius started, looking at her and grabbing her arm, trying to calm her down.

"No!" She yelled, pulling herself out of his grip. "You two figure out whatever is going on; I am so not in the mood for this. Bye." With that, Gemma slung her bag over her shoulder, stalking out of the Great Hall and leaving Rose and Scorpius to their awkward silence.

She walked furiously up the stairs, not really sure where she was going, but she moved so clumsily that she didn't see the person in front of her until she had slammed into them, causing both of them to tumble backwards down to the level in front of the steps, dropping both of their things everywhere.

"Crap, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Gemma scrambled, before looking up and seeing a pair of familiar green eyes.

"It's okay," Albus said bluntly, picking up his books and standing up, brushing himself off. "It was an accident." He turned around and started back up the steps, leaving her on the ground.

There was no way Gemma would let that stand.

"Oi, wait up!" she called, jogging up the stairs so she could fall in pace next to him. "You're being as ridiculous as Scorpius and Rose are. What is up with you all? Do I smell or something?"

Albus rolled his eyes, still not looking at her, but not ignoring her. "We're just all in bad moods right now, Gem."

Gemma couldn't help but grin a little to herself at his nickname for her, but she pushed on; she didn't want him to stop talking now. "What was that with them, though? Scorp calling her by her first name? That's never happened, uh, ever."

"Things change." He continued to look ahead as he said this, an odd look in his eye that Gemma couldn't decipher. Something was obviously really bugging him, but he was hiding it within himself, refusing to talk.

"Yeah, I know. But if that's what's bugging them, then what's up with you, Al? You never ignore me like this and you know it." Gemma stood in front of him, grabbing his arms and stopping him so he had to look at her. He still didn't.

Looking at his shoes he mumbled, "It's nothing, Gem. I've got to go to the library, okay?"

She shook her head, her hands still gripped tightly on his forearms. "Not okay. If I did something wrong, tell me, but I hate this silent, awkward aura we've all got going on. It doesn't work."

Albus looked up at her, and his green eyes seemed uneasy. "It's honestly nothing. I'm just stressed out over a lot and I'm taking it out on everyone. You didn't do anything wrong." His lips were tight and tense as he said this, so Gemma didn't really believe him, but she went with it anyways.

"What are you stressed about?" she asked, letting go of his arms and allowing him to walk again.

Albus sighed, running a hand through his already messy black hair. "It's really stupid, honestly."

Gemma elbowed him jokingly. "Everything you do is stupid; tell me."

"Rose said we shouldn't tell anyone yet, not til we've got it figured out at least," he said, his eyebrows creased.

"Rose can deal with it. I won't tell Scorpius." Gemma smiled at him earnestly, willing him to speak.

Albus looked at her for a second, a strange look on his face, before he sighed and nodded. "Fine, but you're going to think I'm crazy."

As they walked up the stairs, he explained the dream to her, and by the time he was finished, Gemma was shocked.

"I want to tell you not to worry because it's probably just a dream but-"

"But I'm Albus Potter. Yeah, I know; Rose said the same thing." He said this bitterly, looking at the ground. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to do about it. Should I tell my dad? My mum? Uncle Neville? What am I supposed to do with this?"

Gemma looked at him hopelessly, with no clue what to say. "Al, if it does mean something real, then I don't think there is anything you can do. You just kind of have to ride it out and hope for the best."

He glared at her incredulously. "Just _ride it out_? You did hear me right? I _died_ in this dream! I can't just go along with death!" His bright eyes seemed crazed, and Gemma grabbed his arm, stopping them both in their tracks.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. I'm just saying, whenever this happened to your father, even when he did fight, eventually whatever happened just…happened. He couldn't stop it, and if this really is something real, I don't think you'll be able to either. But that doesn't mean you can't fight it."

Albus nodded, sighing and putting his weight on he grip. "You're probably right."

She shook her head. "Correction; I'm always right. Now come on, you've got studying to do." She pointed at the library door, which they had just arrived at.

He laughed, grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him; despite the circumstances, Gemma couldn't help but grin.

* * *

Astoria Malfoy bit her lip anxiously, sitting stiffly on the couch as her husband, Draco, paced back and forth in front of her.

"How can she already be coming?" He exclaimed, not looking up from his striding.

"I don't know, love."

"Potter only sent us a letter two days ago; how can she already be coming?"

"Draco, I don't know. But she is, and we don't know how soon," Astoria groaned, looking down at the letter in her lap again.

_Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy,_

_I'm back in town – hope you've made up my guest room!_

_Lots of love,_  
_Auntie Bella_

That was all it had said, but it was enough to completely unhinge Draco.

"I sent Scorpius and Gemma their letters this morning," he said, looking at her wildly.

"I know, love," Astoria nodded. "They'll get them tomorrow morning, and they'll know what's going on. It'll be fine, calm down."

Draco laughed, stopping his pacing and staring at her. "Calm down. Okay, good plan. Tell me, how calm are you going to be when Bellatrix Lestrange arrives and is roaming our halls? Will you do her laundry? Will you cook her dinner, Astoria?"

Astoria let out a deep breath, relaxing herself. "I will do whatever is necessary to keep you and I safe, Draco, and to make sure that Scorpius and Gemma are not targeted if-"

"When," he cut in, correcting her.

She nodded, continuing, "When this turns into war. I don't care how it all turns out, as long as our family remains safe. The three of you are all that is important to me at this point."

Draco stared at her, his grey eyes worried. "You're right, Story," he said, sitting down next to her.

"I always am," she commented, laughing slightly. "But we need to be prepared for her to come at any moment, because you know that's exactly what she'll do. Bellatrix was always, well, spontaneous."

Draco's face went dark, and he looked lost in thought. "Trust me, I know plenty about her spontaneity."

Astoria rubbed his shoulder soothingly, nodding. "I know you do, and that will help. She won't catch us off guard." At that moment, a loud banging was heard from the front hall; someone was at the door.

Draco started, his body stiffening. "She can't possibly be here _now._"

Astoria shook her head. "I don't know, but if she is, we'd be a lot better off letting her in than making her wait. Come on." She grabbed his hand tightly, pulling him with her to the front room.

The two of them looked up at their big dark door, frozen in anticipation; neither of them could do it. Astoria looked up at Draco, who's eyes were frantic and nervous, and was about to suggest that they run or hide or find some other way to get out of this when the knocking started again, this time accompanied by a voice.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, don't you dare leave your mother out in the cold!" The voice of Narcissa Malfoy, normally piercing and terrifying, was a comfort at a time like this. Draco ran forward and pulled the door open, and Narcissa and Lucius came in quickly, closing the door behind them.

Narcissa looked exhausted. Her silver hair that she still tried to pass for blonde was pulled up in a tight knot, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Lucius Malfoy's long, grey-streaked blonde hair was tied down his back, and he looked like he hadn't slept in ages.

"Mother? Father? What are you doing here?" Draco asked, even though Astoria could tell by the look in his eyes that he already knew.

"Draco, honey, I don't know how to tell you this, but your aunt Bellatrix is-"

"We know," Astoria said bluntly. "She sent us a letter no less than an hour ago."

Narcissa and Lucius both looked shocked. Stepping forward, Lucius looked directly at Astoria. "Show me this letter now."

Draco moved forward to protest; annoyed at his father's commanding tone, but Astoria held him back, nodding. "Follow me," she said, turning and walking back to the sitting room, trailed by the three Malfoy's. She reached down and grabbed the note off the couch, handing it to Lucius and sitting back down in her place. Narcissa sat down next to her and Draco remained standing, watching his father read.

"She didn't give you the time?" Lucius asked, looking up at his daughter-in-law.

"No, she didn't. Did she tell you a date, Lucius?" Astoria looked at him anxiously, not sure what she was hoping his answer would be.

The older blonde nodded, pulling a note out of his cloak and handing it to her. "Read it for yourself."

_Dear Cissy,_

_Make your arrangements and say your goodbyes to the peace._

_I'll be back in town by midnight on November 15__th__!_

_See you soon,_

_Bella_

Astoria looked up, her jaw slack. "That's today." She turned her gaze to Draco quickly, asking, "Love, what time is it?"

He looked down at his watch, adorned in spinning planets and gold and replied, "11:30 PM. How much time do we have, Story?"

Astoria could feel herself shaking as she looked to Lucius and Narcissa, all three of them responding at the same time, "Half an hour."

Draco eyed his family members as if they were insane. "Thirty minutes? That's all we've got? You've got to be kidding me!" Astoria passed the note to him, not saying a word. He read over it quickly and looked back up, panic evident on his face. "Well, what are we going to do?"

"We are going to survive," Narcissa said plainly. "We've fought on this side before and we will do it again."

"But, Narcissa, it didn't work with the Dark Lord leading us, what makes you think Bellatrix will be able to succeed where he couldn't?" Lucius asked, his voice strained.

Narcissa laughed bitterly. "Oh, I know she can't. But she can kill perfectly well, and if we don't fight on her side, what do you think will happen to us, Lucius?"

None of them had to say it; they knew. It was fight or die, and in the collective silence, they all decided that their answer would be fight. It had to be; because if they didn't fight, they would lose everything. Their lives, Scorpius and Gemma's lives, and the pride of the Malfoy name.

Astoria groaned, putting her head in her hands, as her husband and parents-in-law started trying to prepare for the inevitable.


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**To the review I got and anyone else interested:**

**Gemma's name is pronounced Gem-Uh. In my imagination, Scorpius is a Scorpio, and that's where he got his name, so by that rule Gemma is Gemini, hence her name. Plus, it fits with the whole Malfoy idea of astrological names so there we have it. I had other ideas, but Gemma was my favorite, so that won!**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

_Things Could Literally Not Get Worse – Could They?_

Albus rolled out of his bed, landing on the floor; another sleepless night had left him absolutely exhausted. However, while his nights were bordering on torturous, his awakened state had become much less stressful, thanks to Gemma. Albus would never admit it to anyone, but he had liked Gemma since he first met her in his second year. When she had walked up to the front of the Great Hall, her tiny eleven-year-old body trembling in her new robes, he had quietly hoped that she would've ended up in Gryffindor. But like her older brother, Gemma had been sorted into Slytherin, the house of the cunning and sly – and boy, was she cunning.

During her first two years Gemma was hilariously funny, playful and a bit (or a lot) of a prankster, and Albus had loved it. But then, out of nowhere, in her third year, and Albus's fourth, she had become a completely new person. She started dressing skimpily and hanging off of every guy with a pulse. The change had come out of nowhere – one second she had been running around in the forest with him, Rose and Scorpius after dark, the next she was dangling around on the arm of every and any guy in school. In the locker rooms and lavatory's, Gemma was all any guy could talk about, any guy but Albus. He didn't know why, but he didn't like the new Gemma. Actually, he hated her. Sure, when they were alone, or with Rose and Scorpius, she would act like herself and joke around like they used to. But whenever they were in front of people, she would feel the need to show off and "flaunt what her mama gave her," as she put it.

But the more Gemma "flaunted," the more Albus realized how much she meant to him, and how much he wanted her to only "flaunt" for him. Of course, he hid that – why wouldn't he? Obviously, she wasn't really the kind of girl who was interested in committing to anyone or anything, but under her layer of trashy makeup and tight, leather clothing, Albus knew that his Gem was still there, and he couldn't not believe that. So even though he hid his feelings, sometimes he slipped up. Like, at breakfast the morning before, when he had stormed out of the hall because Rose was joking about Gemma shagging some guy in a broom closet. It probably wasn't the best reaction, but he couldn't help it. The idea of another guy touching her like _that,_ especially the ones they always seemed to talk about, made Albus sick to his stomach.

He hadn't even been sure whom he was angry at, but he knew he was angry and he couldn't risk snapping at her, so he'd walked out. If she hadn't followed him after lunch, he probably would still be giving her the silent treatment. But she had, because she was Gemma and she was persistent and in your face, but not in a bad way – it was just, Gemma.

Albus smiled to himself, getting dressed quickly and walking down into the common room, where Rose was already waiting with her hand on her cocked hip. "What took you so long?" She questioned as he ambled up to her, an incredulous look on her face.

He shrugged. "I woke up late. Come on, let's go."

Rose just shook her head, linking arms with him and dragging him down the stairs. "It's very off for you, that's all. You're never late to anything. What's going on? Is something wrong? Are you still getting those dreams?"

Albus rolled his eyes. "One question at a time, Rosie Posie." She cringed at her childhood nickname, but he just laughed and continued. "Yes, I'm still having the dreams, but I'm used to them at this point; they aren't bugging me. However, I know something is bugging you and Scorpius."

Rose looked down, not meeting his eye. "I don't know what you are talking about."

He stopped walking, halting them both in their path. "Yes, you do. The two of you didn't speak at dinner last night either, and Scorp won't tell me anything, so you're going to. Spill." He looked at her pointedly, refusing to not be given an answer.

"Fine," she growled, still not making eye contact with him. "We were supposed to be practicing Disillusionist charms, and he-"

Rose's face turned the trademark Weasley red, so Albus elbowed her, asking, "He what?"

With her cheeks still flushed, she mumbled, "He made my clothes invisible, not me. I was standing there in my underwear."

Albus snorted loudly, and that snort quickly turned into a loud laugh that echoed off the halls and caused a group of third years to stare at the two of them. Rose slapped his arm, whispering sternly, "Shut up, Albus Severus! This isn't funny!"

He wiped his eyes, calming down. "You're right, Rosie. I'm sorry. It's absolutely hysterical." Albus broke down into another fit of giggles and Rose pulled away from him, crossing her arms tightly across her chest, striding ahead quickly.

He sighed, jogging up to her side. "Come on, Rose, I was just kidding." She didn't say anything, so he kept going. "It's not funny; I know. But I don't get it – him trying to embarrass you is normal, shouldn't you be yelling at him about it?"

"He wasn't trying to." Rose said this quietly, and Albus almost didn't hear her, but the words still made it to him, as unbelievable as they were.

"What do you mean he wasn't trying to?"

She looked at him for the first time, and he noticed how tired she looked as she snapped, "I mean he didn't mean to. It was a legitimate accident, and he apologized and I-"

"You what? You didn't curse him or something, did you?" Albus looked at her worriedly; he'd never seen her this torn up over something.

"I called him Scorpius. On accident, but I did. That's why when he called me Rose it-"

"You looked like you'd seen a thestral; it makes sense now." Albus put his arm around his cousin and smiled. "I won't say I didn't call it."

Rose jerked out from under his arm, glaring at him. "What the hell are you talking about? Called _what?_"

Albus just laughed, walking ahead and forcing her to follow behind him. "You and Scorpius. You two are practically meant for each other, you're both just too thick-headed to realize it."

"That's total rubbish, Albus Severus, and you know it. We hate each other."

"Exactly," he replied, a smirk on his face.

"Whatever," Rose said; not looking at him, but not saying he was wrong either. "It's the same with you and Gemma. I've seen the way you look at her."

Albus froze; no one was supposed to know about that. "What are you talking about?" He asked her, staring at her, shocked.

"I mean you look at her like she put the stars in the sky. Plus, your reaction to us talking about her and Ryan Clearwater this morning? Scorpius being angry I can understand, but if you're just her best guy friend, why would it bug you so much?" Rose smirked at him, knowing she was correct.

"I think she deserves better is all-" he started to say, but Rose cut him off.

"Albus don't lie to me. I've known you since you were born – you think I can't tell when you've got a crush on someone?"

He sighed, looking down at his cousin. "Please don't tell her."

Rose laughed, relinking their arms. "I won't. I'll let you two find your way to each other."

At that moment they arrived in the Great Hall, in great spirits, and sat down across from Scorpius and Gemma. They were so amused that they didn't notice the terrified looks on their friends faces until Rose asked Gemma to pass the syrup and Gemma was so startled that she dropped the bottle on the floor, shattering it everywhere.

Gemma cursed under her breath and Albus pulled his wand out, muttering, "_Reparo_," and fixing the bottle before anyone noticed something was wrong. At that moment he observed that Gemma looked completely horrified, and Scorpius looked like he would punch anyone who tried to speak to him; Albus took the risk.

"Scorpius? Gemma? What the hell is wrong?" he asked, looking between the two of them. Their faces were pale and their eyes looked panicked.

Rose noticed too, her eyebrows furrowing. "What happened, you guys?"

Neither of them answered, but Scorpius reached into his robes, pulling out a letter and shoving it across the table to Albus, who picked it up. At the same time, Gemma grabbed an identical letter out of her pocket, handing it to Rose. "Don't read it out loud," she mumbled, going back to her food.

Albus and Rose looked at each other, confused, before reading their individual letters. Scorpius's read:

_Dear Scorpius,_

_The contents of this letter are completely confidential, so please read this somewhere it will not be read over your shoulder, and at all costs __do not show it to your friends. __The only person you may speak to this about is Gemma, who will be receiving a similar letter. Anyways, as you know, in the time of the war, your mother, grandparents and I fought, and I know you've been taught that we were on the wrong side, and maybe we were, but at this point, that doesn't matter. Sides don't matter – keeping you and your sister safe does. Your Great Aunt Bellatrix has come out of hiding, and she will be at either our home or Malfoy Manor before we know it. Your mother, grandparents and I aren't going to have a choice who we are going to fight for – it's Death Eater or die for us. You and Gemma however, have a choice, but I beg of you – please join your family. I know that it goes against what you believe but it is your safest bet at making it out of this alive. You'll be in danger either way, but if Bellatrix finds out that the children of the Malfoy family are fighting with the Order of the Phoenix? Your chance of survival will be little to none. Scorpius, please – do this for your sister. Do this for your mother. Do this for yourself. Whatever you've learned, whatever friends you've made – this is your life. Make the correct choice, Scorpius, or there is nothing I can do for you._

_Sincerely,_  
_Father_

Albus and Rose looked up at the same time, shocked. Glancing over Rose's shoulder, he could see that Gemma's letter had been basically the same. He was about to say something when Rose whispered, "_Bellatrix Lestrange?_" Scorpius said nothing, and Gemma nodded.

"There's no way," Albus said, shaking his head. "How can she be back? She's been missing for over twenty years, why would she come back now?"

"She probably has the numbers to do it now," Rose remarked, her eyes thoughtful. "She couldn't come back immediately after the Battle of Hogwarts, it wouldn't make sense. But two decades of prep time – well that's enough time to build up an army."

"Don't say that," Gemma squeaked, squeezing her eyes shut. "She doesn't have an army, Rose."

Rose shrugged. "You never know, Gemma, it's definitely a possibility."

"But it can't be-" she started again, before Scorpius cut her off.

"Shut up, Gemma. Nothing else makes sense," he snapped, glaring at her.

"Don't tell her to shut up!" Albus exclaimed, standing up and glowering at his best friend.

Scorpius stood up too, his eyebrows raised. "Why the hell not, Potter?"

"_OI!_" Rose shouted, grabbing Albus and pulling him back down. "Sit down, Scor – Malfoy. We don't have any reason to be fighting with each other, stop it."

He scowled at her, but listened, sitting back down with a huff. Gemma was looking between the two boys as if she was worried they were going to detonate at any moment, and like she was the one who had started the countdown.

Rose took a deep breath, looking around at the three of them. "There's no point in arguing with the facts. Bellatrix is back, with or without an army, we don't know," Scorpius started to speak but Rose shut him up with a look as she continued. "We do know that she plans to start a war, and that we will end up in the middle of it. Obviously since you showed us the letters, I'm assuming you two are also choosing to ignore your father's suggestion for what side you should fight for?"

"Obviously, Weasley," Scorpius scoffed, annoyed.

"Of course, Rose," Gemma added. "I couldn't do that; I couldn't fight you."

Rose nodded. "That's what I thought. So, where do we go from here?"

They all stared at her, confused. Albus spoke up. "What do you mean? What _can_ we do?"

"I don't know, maybe alerting your father, the Head of the Auror department, might be a good plan, Al," Rose replied sarcastically.

"No," Scorpius snarled.

Rose's eyebrows raised into her hair. "Excuse me?"

"I said no," he repeated. "If we tell Potter, some Auror won't be able to keep their mouth shut and it will get out, and in all honesty, I'd be beyond surprised if he doesn't already know that something is going on."

Albus nodded, agreeing. "That's right. It wouldn't make sense to tell my dad."

Rose's ears were red, and she was beyond angry, but she said calmly, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Gemma spoke quietly, "We'll wait, and then we'll fight."

"Just wait?" Rose snapped. "How do we just _wait_ for this to happen?"

"We have to," Gemma continued, looking directly at Albus, a tiny grin on her face, as she said, "Some things are inevitable. We can fight them, but we can't stop what's coming for us."

Albus smiled at her and even though Rose and Scorpius were staring at him like he was insane, he felt that rush of happiness that Gemma fueled him with, and even the looming warning of war couldn't bring him down.

* * *

Ginny Weasley-Potter's stress level had gone up in immeasurable amounts since Harry had returned from the Dursley's house a little over a week ago. While the return of Bellatrix Lestrange had not yet left the walls of the Auror department, over ninety percent of her family worked there, and she was the wife of Harry Potter. It wasn't exactly a topic she could escape easily, although she did try to keep herself busy. As the coach of the English National Quidditch team, who had won their second championship in a row the past summer, she always had something to do. The new recruits for this year had been difficult to break in, and running conditioning was almost as hard as actually participating in it. But practice only went until six in the afternoon at the latest; Ginny much preferred starting early over going late. Recently, however, being home late at a decent hour meant nothing but stress.

After Harry's long days at the office, he would come lumbering in, covered in dirt or blood – sometimes both, and would update Ginny on what the Aurors had been able to find about the Bellatrix situation and it wasn't going well. They'd found well, basically nothing. Harry had nearly every Auror in the department on the case, searching the countryside and hidden places and Lestrange was nowhere to be found. They had even searched houses: Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix's house, Draco and Astoria Malfoy's house, even Grimmauld Place, which Harry had under protection at all time, and they still hadn't managed to find a thing. Harry was getting frustrated, and Ginny knew it, but she knew he wouldn't give up trying to find her no matter how hard it would be, and that worried her. As important as it was to locate and arrest her, Ginny felt like it was next to impossible.

"OI, COACH!" screamed Annie MacDougall, who was circling above her. "It's six thirty, and you said we could leave at six."

Ginny rolled her eyes, flying up to her and shouting so everyone else could hear, "MACDOUGALL CAN STAY AND RUN THREE LAPS! EVERYONE ELSE CAN GO!"

The rest of the team cheered, flying down to the ground and jogging to the locker rooms as MacDougall groaned. "Seriously, Coach? I was just pointing out the time, you seemed like you'd dozed off."

Ginny nodded. "Seriously, MacDougall. Three laps; go."

Annie huffed, flying down to the track and dropping her broom, beginning to jog. Ginny flew down after her, landing by her chair and sitting down, waiting for her player to finish up. Annie had been right – she had completely spaced out, not paying attention to the practice or the time, and in all honesty, it wasn't the first time it had happened; just the first time someone noticed. Ever since the news of Bellatrix had been told to her, Ginny had been having trouble focusing on anything - let alone Quidditch. Sure, she was worried; everyone was, but she wasn't worried for herself. Ginny had been stressing about her children: James, Albus and Lily. James she knew was going to fight, without a doubt. He was an Auror and had been for a few years; he was working on the case just as hard as Harry was. But Albus and Lily, they were different. The two of them were still in school, and while Albus was of age, Lily was only in her fourth year. Lily, of course, wouldn't be fighting. She wasn't of age, and there was no way that she would be left out of wherever their safe house ended up being once the war began. Albus however, was different. He was seventeen and a legal adult; if he wanted to fight, it was his choice. He was a Gryffindor and he was a Weasley-Potter; it was more likely that Bellatrix would give up and surrender than it was Albus wouldn't fight, but all Ginny could think about was the past. Sure, she was proud of how brave her son was, but she didn't want him to end like any of the brave people from the last war. Her brother Fred's face appeared in her mind before she could stop it and she felt tears trickle down her cheeks. His death hadn't been worth it; it was a freak accident, and nothing was worth losing her Albus.

At that moment, Annie jogged up to her, a worried look on her face. "You okay, Coach?" she asked, tightening her long, dark brown ponytail and grabbing her water bottle from the table next to Ginny.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine; thanks MacDougall. I'm just a little overworked."

"Tell me about it," Annie muttered, and Ginny gave her a pointed look. "I'm kidding, Coach. But you look exhausted. Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

She nodded, smiling at her star Keeper. "I'm positive. Go on home, you've done enough."

"Thanks, Coach!" Annie grinned and ran off, calling, "See you next week!" over her shoulder.

Ginny waved and packed up her stuff, before walking out to the front of the stadium, twisting in place to apparate back to her house. She felt her shoes land in the soft grass in her front yard and looked up to see something surprising. Inside the house, she could see a light on and smoke was coming out of the chimney; Harry was already home. Looking down at her watch, puzzled, Ginny saw that it was only 6:50 P.M. Shrugging, she walked up to the house, unlocking the door and walking in, calling, "Harry, why are you home so early?" as she walked into the living room, expecting to see her husband but being shocked by a completely different face.

"Harry isn't here, dearie. He's off chasing someone who looked just like me; he won't be back for a few hours," said Bellatrix Lestrange, a huge smirk on her face. She was sprawled out across the couch, her wand spinning between her fingers, the fire roaring behind her.

"What – how did you – how did you get in my house? We have enchantments up, only a few people can actually apparate here." Ginny stumbled, shocked, her hand resting near her pocket, ready to pull her wand out and fight.

Bellatrix tilted her head to the fire. "Your son Albus being friends with my great nephew and niece is quite helpful. I have a Floo connection straight to Harry Potter's house!"

Ginny stared at her incredulously. "But the Aurors checked the Malfoy's house. How did you get past them?"

"Well," Bellatrix said, smiling, "Since you won't be able to tell anyone this, I'll clue you in: I had Astoria use a Confundus charm on the Aurors who came looking. She wasn't pleased about it, of course; she claims that her and that Mudblood, what's her name? The one who married your brother that's friends with Potter?"

"Her name is Hermione," Ginny growled, her fists tightening.

"Ah yes, that's right. Well, Astoria took a little bit of convincing," she sneered at this, and Ginny didn't want to imagine what had been done to Astoria, "But eventually, I persuaded her to do it. They believed they had already checked the house before they even went in, and went back to the Ministry of Magic to give the all clear! So now, I am here, and as you may have guessed, I have a reason."

"To kill me?" Ginny questioned, raising her eyebrows sarcastically, attempting to hide the fact that she was terrified out of her mind.

Bellatrix sniggered, shaking her head. "Oh no, no, not yet my dear. What would be the point in that? I'd just set your dear Harry off into a rage and how would that benefit me? No, a hostage is a much better role for you, Mrs. Potter, and then, when your husband comes to rescue you, that is when I shall kill you. How does that sound?"

Ginny tried to laugh mockingly, but her voice cracked, revealing her fear. "Do you honestly think that's going to work? If I'm taken, Harry won't rest until I'm found _alive."_

Bellatrix nodded. "Oh, you will be. I'll kill you in front of him."

"I'd like to see you try," Ginny spat, reaching for her wand, but she was a few seconds too late.

At the exact same moment, Bellatrix pointed her wand at her, yelling, "_STUPEFY!"_ and everything went black as Ginny Potter fell to the floor, unconscious.


	6. Chapter 6

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am so unbelievably sorry that this update took so long! I've been through a rough few weeks.**

**1st - I went camping with my Environmental Club at school, and our tents got caught in a tropical depression - long story short, we woke up in swimming pools.**

**2nd - My computer stopped working, so I had to get repairs.**

**Now however the chapter is up, and updates will be more frequent again - promise!**

Thank you for waiting if you did, and I hope you like the chapter.

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**Chapter 6**

_Finally There But Not Even Close _

"I don't know what they expect us to do."

Rose glared at him; her arms still crossed as tightly as they were half an hour ago. "I'm assuming the point is for us to 'make up,' but honestly I'm just getting more annoyed."

"Well there's one thing we can agree on," Scorpius replied, leaning back against the wall.

Albus and Gemma had thought it would be a brilliant idea to stun the two of them, take their wands, put them in a broom cupboard, revive them, and then lock the door behind them. Rose was sure in their minds, it was a brilliant idea, but thus far all that had happened was her sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, staring at Scorpius, and him sitting on the other side of the closet with his legs sprawled out, barely an inch from her tightly crisscrossed legs. In complete silence.

"This is so stupid," Scorpius groaned, closing his eyes. "I'm not even mad at you."

Rose raised her eyebrows, uncrossing her arms. "You're not?"

He looked at her like she was insane. "Why would I be? I'm the one who made you give the class a strip tease."

She scowled but said, "But I called you Scorpius."

He quirked an eyebrow, amused. "And? As you said, that is my name."

"You were the one who acted like it was a big deal!" she screeched, throwing her hands up.

"It's not a big deal," Scorpius responded thoughtfully, "Just very shocking, considering in the seven years I've known you, you never figured out that it is indeed, my name."

"I know what your name is, Scorpius," Rose retorted, rolling her eyes.

He smiled, nodding. "See? Doesn't that sound so much nicer than your usual snarl of _Malfoy_?"

"No," Rose countered, looking down. "I like Malfoy better."

"No you don't," he laughed, sitting up and crossing his legs, scooting closer to her so that they were barely a foot apart.

"Since when do you decide what I do and don't like?" she asked, her tone annoyed.

"Since I'm always right, and you're always stupid," he laughed, leaning closer to her, his steely grey eyes shimmering.

Rose wrinkled her nose, tilting away from him and resting her head on the wall behind her. "And you wonder why I don't like you, Malfoy."

Scorpius sighed melodramatically, scooting away from her again. "You don't like me? What? All this time I thought we were best friends, Rosie Posie."

Rose grimaced, shuddering. "Do not call me that. Like, ever."

"Why not?" Scorpius asked curiously, a smirk on his face. "Albus calls you that all the time."

"Yeah, as a joke," she answered, her annoyance growing. "He's called me that since we learned talk, you don't have express permission to use that nickname because you heard him say it. It's annoying enough from him."

"Why don't you like that nickname, Rosie Posie?" He grinned at her, clearly humoring himself.

Rose however, was not finding this funny. "Malfoy, shut up. The quicker it seems like we're getting along, the quicker we can get out of this cupboard."

"By what logic?" he asked.

"They're probably listening to what we're saying, stupid," Rose scoffed. "Merlin, they better hide when they let us out of here, because I'm absolutely going to kill them." She looked up at the ceiling, shouting, "YOU HEAR THAT ALBUS? HUH, GEMMA? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU BOTH!"

Scorpius stared at her, a quizzical look on his face. "I'm almost certain that you should be detained on the grounds of probable insanity."

"I'm almost certain that you should shut your mouth before I shut it for you," she snapped, glowering at him.

"You don't have a wand, smart ass. So unless you have some way of shutting me up without the use of magic, I don't see why I should stop talking."

"I'd rather not, thanks," Rose frowned, disgusted. The first thought that had popped into her head was to kiss him, but she immediately shoved that away; she would rather have to endure his talking.

"Rather not what?" Scorpius asked, confused. "What would you-" he started again, but then he stopped, realizing what she had been thinking. His face contorted, grossed out. "Ew, Weasley, did you actually think I meant that I wanted you to kiss me?"

Rose lied quickly, "No. What? Is that what _you_ were thinking?"

Scorpius flushed, looking down. "No. Isn't that what you were thinking?"

Rose shook her head convincingly. "No, definitely not. I meant knocking you out, but I didn't want to actually touch your slimy face," she said, deceiving him easily.

"Oh," he said, his face going blank. "Well, okay."

"Okay," she answered, not looking at him.

The silence started again, and they both stared into opposite corners of the broom closet, trying to find something interesting about the brick walls surrounding them. Rose tried not to think about what had just happened, but it was a little difficult with Scorpius just sitting there silently, his eyes closed and his fists clenched.

She moved her eyes to him, as the brick just wasn't very interesting. His messy blonde hair was laying almost flat, but not completely. It stuck out at random angles, but in a way that looked good. _Not that Scorpius looks good_, she thought to herself, shaking the thought away. Mentally reprimanding herself, she returned to observing him. There were dark circles under his eyes; he looked completely exhausted.

As of today, it had been a week since his father had sent Gemma and him letters, and nothing strange had happened on his end, but there was a something that was off. Rose and Albus's parents, who usually sent letters at least twice a week, hadn't been heard from at all.

The two of them had consulted their many cousins, and found out that none of them had been getting letters from their parents either. Rose told herself that they probably had just been busy, or unable to send a letter, but deep down, she couldn't help but worry. Bellatrix Lestrange comes out of hiding, and all contact from her parents, aunts and uncles stops? There was definitely something ominous in that.

"Weasley, why are you staring at me?" Scorpius's voice jerked her out of her thoughts, his grey eyes piercing her blue ones.

"Uh," she mumbled, looking up. "Wha?"

Scorpius stared at her, looking like he was trying not to laugh. "Let's try an answer that isn't incomprehensible, please."

"I'm not staring at you," she said, continuing to stare at him.

"You definitely are, and were." Scorpius's tone wasn't biting or sarcastic; he was sincerely curious.

"You definitely were thinking about kissing me," Rose shot back, a smirk on her lips.

"No, I wasn't," he snapped defensively, proving himself wrong completely.

Rose grinned at him. "You totally were. I know, I'm irresistible; no one can overcome the charms of Rose Weasley; it's not your fault."

Scorpius snorted. "You're kidding right," he laughed loudly.

Rose pretended to look offended. "Of course, I'm not. I'm a wicked temptress of the night!"

Scorpius laughed harder, holding his stomach. "Like I said before, you definitely need to be checked out in the head."

Rose moved over to him, sitting next to him, about an inch away. "Hey, it takes one to know one."

"Are you insinuating that I'm crazy?" He asked, looking down at her.

"I'm not insinuating; I'm saying it's true."

They were barely four inches apart.

"Is there something wrong with being crazy?" He asked, fake hurt on his face.

"Definitely not," she replied, as they slowly leaned closer to each other.

Rose was looking at Scorpius in a way she had never even thought about before. His face was close to hers, his silvery eyes shining with an emotion that she couldn't quite place, and for the first time since she'd known him, there was a true, genuine smile on his lips – because of her.

Scorpius leaned into her awkwardly, subconsciously wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him, and their lips were a centimeter apart when a loud cracking sound erupted from the door. Startled, they jerked away from each other, Scorpius's arm still around Rose, both of their cheeks flushed bright red.

"Hey! Are you guys better now or -" Albus started, standing out in the corridor, before freezing, and noticing their positions. "Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry I didn't realize you were-"

Rose stood up suddenly, pulling herself out of Scorpius's grip and smiling tightly at her cousin. "No, it's fine! We're all good now! Bye, Al, thanks!"

She started out of the cupboard and was almost on her way down the corridor when Scorpius called out from behind her, "Rose, wait!"

His tone wasn't demanding, it wasn't harsh; it was pleading and strained. He honestly wanted her to turn around and go back to him. And for a second, she almost did. But against her better judgment, she pretended that she hadn't heard him shout, although they both knew she did, and bolted down the corridor before her cousin and her, well, Scorpius could stop her.

* * *

The more they looked, the more hopeless it was becoming. Almost every possible spot that hadn't been searched already was being investigated currently, and still not a single trace of Ginny had turned up.

She'd been missing for a full week now, and the only trace of evidence they had was a single strand of Bellatrix Lestrange's hair that had been found on Harry and Ginny's couch; Hermione had recognized it the second she saw it. Everyone was looking for her, though they had tried to keep it private, her disappearance had gotten out, and was all over the Daily Prophet. "_HARRY POTTER'S WIFE GOES MISSING – A NEW WAR TO BEGIN?" _and other such titles dominated the news scene; it was impossible to escape.

Everyone was distraught, but Harry was taking the worst of it. He had become a cold machine of a person, his only mission finding Ginny. He rarely left the office and he didn't show any emotion; all of his energy was focused on finding Ginny, and finding her alive.

Ron Weasley slammed his fists down on his desk in frustration, and his assistant, who had been quietly working on paperwork at her desk, jumped in surprise.

"Do you need me to get you something, Mr. Weasley?" she asked, looking over at him in concern.

"My sister would be nice," he growled, glaring at her.

His assistant, Eloise, looked nervous as she replied, "Mr. Weasley, if I could find her for you, I would, but there are Aurors in the field looking for her right now and I'm sure that they'll-"

"They'll what?" Ron laughed bitterly. "Find her? It's been a week, and they haven't found anything. What makes you think they'll ever find her, and if they do, that she'll be alive?"

Eloise took a deep breath and said, "Because Harry Potter is looking for her, sir, and he loves her. He will find her."

Ron raised his eyebrows. "How old are you, Eloise?"

"I'm twenty-three sir," she responded, confused. "Beg your pardon, but why does that matter?"

"You weren't even alive when the last war happened," he answered resentfully. "If you were, you would know that loving someone is never enough to save them."

"But sir, no offense intended, it's different this time, isn't it? You-Know-Who isn't alive anymore, so it can't ever get that bad again, can it?" Eloise looked worried as she asked this.

"Voldemort isn't alive. You're right. But Bellatrix Lestrange is, and I'm afraid the history books sadly undermine what she's capable of. She was his second-hand and if she has Ginny, then I highly doubt she's even still alive as we speak."

"But sir, all her work was done under her master's orders-" Eloise started, but Ron's loud laugh cut it off.

"Don't ramble off to me what you heard about in History of Magic, Eloise. I was there. I saw what she was capable of, and believe me; she can hold this up on her own perfectly well. I'd get ready for war if I were you."

Ron looked away from her, blinking his eyes quickly. "Sorry for yelling at you."

"It's perfectly alright, sir," she said, swallowing nervously. "But do you truly believe we're going to be at war?"

"I don't believe, Eloise," he said unhappily. "I know."

"Oh," she replied, her eyes nervous. "Well, sir, I think you've had a long enough day, would you like to go home? I can finish up your paperwork for you, if you'd like."

Ron smiled resentfully, so it more closely resembled a grimace. "Thanks, Eloise. I'll see you tomorrow."

He got up and started walked to the elevator, pressing the button for Atrium. As he walked through the main room, the change of the past week was obvious. The normally bustling room was silent, and the atmosphere seemed dark and scared. MISSING WITCH posters with Ginny's face hung on almost every wall, and people stared at Ron as he walked by, as if they were waiting for his reaction; they didn't get one. He walked calmly to one of the fireplaces, pulling out his supply of Floo Powder and throwing it in, jumping in and twisting to find his way home.

Stepping out of the fireplace, Ron only had half a second before a mass of bushy brown hair flew at him as Hermione flung her arms around his neck, clutching on to him tightly.

"'Ron, Ron, thank Merlin you're here, I thought they'd got you, I-" Hermione scrambled, her voice cracking.

Ron held her close to him, saying, "No one got me, 'Mione; I'm right here." He pulled away from her, still holding her waist, looking down at her worried face. "Why would you think they got me? There hasn't been anymore evidence; did something happen?"

Hermione bit her lip, nodding and tilting her head towards the window. "We got an owl." She wiggled out of his arms and walked over to the table sitting next to the couch, picking up a folded piece of paper that Ron hadn't noticed before. "Look at it," she said, handing it to him solemnly.

_Mr. and Mrs. Weasley,_

_I know that you and Harry Potter have the entire Auror department searching for Ginny Potter. I thought I'd make it easier for you by telling you that it's completely useless. You will find her – when I want you to. She will be returned to you on my terms, not your own. _

_The more you look for her, the longer I will keep her from you. If you continue the Ministry search, more of you will disappear; that is not a threat; that is a promise that I am going to keep. _

_Stop wasting your time. _

_Hoping to see you soon!_

_Bellatrix Lestrange _

_P.S._

_If you show anyone this letter besides Potter, I'll kill her. _

_Think of your own creative way to tell the Ministry that the search is off._

"Like hell," Ron muttered, throwing the letter on the ground angrily. "Does she seriously think we're just going to _give up?_ Does she think that _Harry_ would give up on finding her?!"

Hermione shook her head. "When he see's this, I don't know what he'll say, Ron. This isn't a game; it's Ginny's life. We can't risk that."

"You think I don't know that?" Ron snapped, glaring at her. "This is my little sister we're talking about!"

"I know that," Hermione said softly, putting a hand on his arm. "And that's why we have to be careful, and as much as I hate it, we need to listen to what Bellatrix says. This isn't about fighting her; not until we get Ginny back."

Ron leaned into her touch, sighing. "We need to get Harry over here."

"Got it," Hermione replied, going over to the fireplace and grabbing a handful of Floo powder. "Would he be in his office right now?" Ron nodded, and she got down on her knees, throwing the powder into the fire and shouting, "Harry Potter's office!" continuing to stick her head in the fire.

Ron watched her talk, not being able to hear Harry, and zoned out as their conversation went on; she was having trouble convincing him that it was important enough to leave work.

"Yes, I understand that you think you've found a lead, but Harry this important!" she said, exasperated. Ron heard her annoyed sigh, and then, "Yes, I know that there have been times when you were right about something and we ignored you. But we have proof, Harry. Bellatrix sent us a letter."

After this statement, Hermione became was quiet, and he was assumed that Harry was being silent too. A few seconds later he heard her say, "I'll see you in a minute," before pulling her head out of the flames. She turned around and looked at Ron, a tense look on her face. "Ready?" she asked.

He nodded, grabbing her hand and pulling her up off her knees as they sat down on the couch, waiting for Harry. A minute later, the fire turned green and he spun into vision, stepping out of the fireplace, his hair tousled and his face blank. "Where's the letter?" he demanded, his tone harsh as he glowered at Hermione.

"Oi!" Ron started, annoyed at Harry's tone, but Hermione rubbed his arm, holding him down.

"It's right there," she said calmly, pointing at where Ron had thrown the letter earlier.

Harry bent down and picked it up, sitting down in the chair across from them without a word. His eyes scanned the page quickly before he looked up at his two best friends. "Does she _seriously_ think that I'm just going to stop looking for her? She's my _wife_ for Merlin's sake!" Harry shoved the letter in his pocket and shook his head. "There's no way. It's not happening."

"But Harry," Hermione started, but he cut her off.

"But nothing! This is Ginny we're talking about! We can't just wait around for Bellatrix to decide to give her back! Did you read the letter? She said _on her own terms._ Sure, she'll send Ginny back to us, in twenty different pieces!" Harry yelled, standing up in anger.

Hermione was at a loss for words, but Ron wasn't as he stood up too. "Don't talk to her like that!" he shouted back. "She's trying to help! And Ginny may be your wife, but I think you've forgotten that she's my little sister, and I am not going to risk my sister's life because I'm too full of pride to realize when to stop trying something that was never going to work!"

Harry looked back and forth between the two of them; Hermione sitting on the couch with watery eyes, and Ron red-faced and shaking in front of him; and he sat back down, sighing. "We have to do something. We can't just leave this to fate."

"I agree," Hermione began slowly, "Actually, There is a way to get around Bellatrix's terms."

"What are you talking about?" Ron and Harry asked simultaneously, both confused, per usual.

"She said we have to call off the Ministry search," Hermione responded, a slight smile forming on her lips. "She said absolutely nothing about the three of us searching for her on our own."

"You think that we can take this on by ourselves? Ron asked, disbelief in his voice. Harry nodded, agreeing with Ron's hesitation.

Hermione raised her eyebrows, amused despite the circumstances. "What _haven't_ we been able to do between the three of us? Ron, come on – Weasley is our King? And Harry, do you not remember that whole 'The Chosen One' thing?" She paused, taking a breath and saying, "And I am the brightest witch of our age. If we can't do something, then who can?"

Ron and Harry looked at each other for a second, before both nodding, looking back at Hermione with a glance of approval. Ron could feel his adrenaline bubbling as he grinned at his wife and best friend and asked, "So when do we start?"


	7. Chapter 7

"_What haven't we been able to do between the three of us? Ron, come on – Weasley is our King? And Harry, do you not remember that whole 'The Chosen One' thing?" She paused, taking a breath and saying, "And I am the brightest witch of our age. If we can't do something, then who can?"_

_Ron and Harry looked at each other for a second, before both nodding, looking back at Hermione with a glance of approval. Ron could feel his adrenaline bubbling as he grinned at his wife and best friend and asked, "So when do we start?"_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

_Literal Imprisonment and Unnoticeable Captivity _

_**(A few hours later…)**_

"Since I got sick and your detentions got pushed back, you now have twice as much work to do. Professor Anderson needs these cleaned out, so you two will be spending the next two hours getting the guts of slugs out of these jars," Professor Smith said, a smirk on his face. "Give me your wands; you're doing this by hand."

Scorpius groaned in protest. "That isn't fair! That's going to take us ages!" Rose, who was standing next to him, nodded in agreement.

Professor Smith just smiled at them, his hand out. "That's why you have two hours. Hand them over!" They both pulled their wands out of their pockets begrudgingly, placing them in his hand.

"Thank you," he sneered, "If either of you need any assistance, I will be in my office not caring, so don't pester me." Without another word, he strolled up the mini staircase and into his office, slamming the door shut behind him.

"This is complete and utter rubbish," Scorpius whined, throwing himself down in the seat behind him. "How are we going to get all of this done?"

Looking at the huge mess of organ-filled jars in front of them, Rose shrugged, grumbling, "I guess we better get started."

She sat down next to him, picking up one of the sponges and bottles of soap that Professor Smith had left them with, beginning to scrub. Scorpius turned and looked at her, rolling his eyes. "Are you seriously doing this?

Rose nodded, continuing to clean. "The quicker we get it done, the quicker we can leave."

"Why do you want to leave that badly?" He asked, annoyance in his tone. "Am I that horrible to be around, unless you're locked in a cupboard with me?" He didn't look at her when he said this; he didn't want her to see his expression.

Scorpius heard Rose drop the soap bottle, and then felt her hand on his shoulder, twisting him around to look at her. Exasperatedly, she asked, "Seriously? You're going to do that?"

"Yes," he replied, shaking her hand off.

"Well then you can talk to yourself, because I for one, would like to leave this musty classroom," Rose replied, irritated. She picked her sponge back up and started cleaning again, refusing to look at him.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, Scorpius with his arms across his chest and Rose scrubbing furiously at the jars, until an hour had passed and she spoke. "Scorpius, can you please help me with these?" She gestured at the jars in front of them which, after an hour, were only a quarter of the way done.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows and she glared, saying, "Yes. I called you Scorpius. Big deal; I'm over it. Can you please just help? I can't do the rest of these in an hour by myself."

Scorpius looked at the jars, then looked back at her and answered curtly, "No."

"Why in Merlin's name not?" Rose exclaimed, glaring at him. "We're just going to get in trouble if they aren't done!"

"I will help you if we talk about what I want to talk about," he said, his arms remaining in their crossed position. "Until then, I will sit here."

Rose groaned, putting her face in her hands before looking up at him with a tight smile on her face. "What would you like to talk about, Scorpius dear?"

"Why you decided it was a good plan to run off on me," he responded, watching her expression carefully.

Rose pulled at her hair, twisting it around her finger as she said, "Albus let us back out, why would I stay in there any longer?" Scorpius glared at her, causing her to stutter and continue, "Okay, I know that's not what you meant. I don't know, okay, Scorpius? I honestly wasn't thinking."

"Yeah, that was fairly clear, thank you all the same," he retorted, frustrated. "Is that all you have to say about it?"

She shrugged, saying quietly, "I don't know. What do you want me to say? 'Hey, we almost kissed even though we've hated each other for years, so that was confusing enough, and then my cousin walked in so I freaked out and ran off'?"

Scorpius nodded, uncrossing his arms. "That's definitely a start." Pondering for a moment, he added, "I've never hated you, for the record."

Rose looked at him curiously, responding, "That wasn't exactly the impression you gave me, considering you acted repulsed every time we hung out and spent every moment of your time aggravating to me no end."

He shrugged. "You are really easy to annoy, Rose Weasley."

"No I'm not!" she exclaimed, irritation in her voice. Scorpius snickered, raising his eyebrows and she grumbled, "Shut up. I'm not easy to annoy, _you_ are just really damn annoying."

"That's your opinion," Scorpius said. "Albus doesn't think that I'm annoying, does he?"

"Yeah, but the rest of my family doesn't like you. Especially my da-" Rose stopped abruptly, biting her lip. "Bloody hell," she mumbled, anxiety suddenly taking over her expression.

He stared at her, confusion evident on his face. "What? What about your dad?"

"Scorpius," Rose said slowly, "My dad _hates_ you. He's not quite as accepting as Al's dad, and by not quite I mean not at all. He hates your father, so by default, he hates you too – and I almost _snogged_ you!" Her mouth was in a shocked "O" and her eyes were flashing nervously. "Merlin, we nearly snogged! My dad would absolutely kill me!"

Scorpius crossed his arms again, looking away from her, and when he spoke, his voice was laced with anger. "I didn't realize I was _that _much of an awful disgrace to you and Al. My parents got over their feud with your parents, I assumed your parents would be able to do the same."

Rose backtracked, stuttering as she said, "No-no, Scorpius, that isn't what I meant, it's just my dad-"

"Your dad what?" Scorpius said bluntly, cutting her off. "Why do you care so damn much what your father thinks? You should be able to snog whomever you like without a permission slip from him, Rose! Maybe the war is restarting, and hell, maybe our families are going to fight on opposite sides, but that doesn't mean that _I _am joining the Death Eaters! I'm not my father and neither are you. It's your life, not his!" He had turned back around to face her, and was glaring at her with such intensity that she had subconsciously scooted her chair away from him.

Gathering back her confidence, Rose glared back at him as she said, "No one said you were a Death Eater. Maybe, just _maybe,_ I don't want to snog you. Have you ever thought about that?"

Scorpius snorted, shaking his head. "Liar."

"Who are you to say I'm lying?" She crossed her arms as she said that, putting up a defensive mental shield.

"Just because I've been a prat to you for seven years, it doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention to you. I know you just as well as Gemma and Albus do." He said this softly, the irritation in his tone replaced by something that sounded like confusion.

"Scorpius, I-" Rose tried to speak, but he cut her off again.

Laughing slightly to himself he said, "For o_nce_ in your life Rose, shut up," before grabbing her face in his hands and pulling her towards him, their lips crushing together. The moment they touched, it was like an electric current had erupted between them, latching them together like two halves of a whole instead of two separate people. Rose started to rise out of her chair, wrapping her arms around his neck, and Scorpius grabbed her waist, pulling her down into his lap.

A few seconds after he did this, Rose drew her face away from his, and he noticed that her cheeks were flushed the well-known Weasley red. Slowly, she said, "I am straddling your lap."

Scorpius nodded, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, you are. And?"

Rose's eyebrows creased as she asked, "Why am I straddling your lap?"

He shrugged, snickering. "That wasn't me, I just put you on top of me. The straddling idea was all yours, Rosie Posie. Not that I mind it though, do continue."

Rose's eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head as she got off of him, sitting back down in her chair and groaning, "For Merlin's sake, I said don't _call me that!" _

She tried to glare at him, but it only lasted for about five seconds before they both burst out laughing. Looking back at the table suddenly, she muttered, "Bollocks, we still have to clean all of these."

Scorpius shook his head, pulling a cloth out of his pocket. "Take a guess who charmed a washcloth before he came to detention because he suspected that Professor Smith would take his wand away?"

Without waiting for an answer, he dropped the cloth on the table where it immediately started cleaning the jars, around twenty times quicker than Rose had been before.

"You are absolutely brilliant," she said, grinning at him.

Snorting, he replied, "Did Rose Weasley actually just compliment me, or am I going prematurely senile?"

"Doesn't matter; shut up," she answered, crawling back into his lap and successfully silencing him for the remaining hour of a detention that turned out to be a lot better than either of them had ever expected.

* * *

_**(One week later)**_

Astoria had been forced into doing a lot of things that she never thought she would ever have to do under any circumstances. Housing the most wanted war criminal in the wizarding world was definitely not something that had been on her bucket list. But when Bellatrix threatened to kill her children if she didn't help her, well, there wasn't really a choice.

Having to deal with Bellatrix in her house was bad enough, but in Astoria's opinion, the worst part was that she had to act like absolutely nothing was different. She and Draco still had to go to work; if they stopped working suddenly, it would be very suspicious, and for Draco at least, that wasn't unbearable.

As a Healer, he was never really involved in the political side of the war, although, occasionally he would have to care for someone who had bitten by a werewolf that was rumoured to be running wild; of course, he couldn't tell anyone that the very same werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, was living in one of his guest rooms.

For Astoria however, escaping the current news was literally impossible. She worked in Magical Law Enforcement, so aside from the Auror department, hers was the most involved in the effort to find and take down Bellatrix, and this would've been hard enough if she wasn't a friend to Hermione Granger.

Astoria knew that Hermione's husband, Ron, and best friend, Harry Potter, were going absolutely insane trying to find Ginny, and it was killing her to not tell them where she was; but she kept quiet, because if she did tell – it would _literally_ kill her.

The most she could do was try to keep Ginny alive and healthy, which is why she had volunteered to be her caretaker while she was in Bellatrix's possession. The Death Eaters had seemed suspicious of this at first, and Astoria had been frightened that Bellatrix would see right through her, but she hadn't. Instead she complimented her on her bravery and willingness to deal with the disgusting blood traitor.

Sighing, Astoria tucked the day's Daily Prophet under her arm and walked down the stairs to the cellar, a platter holding a sandwich, juice and some of her homemade cookies in her open hand. Bellatrix was out right now, or she wouldn't have dared make such a friendly looking meal; normally Ginny got bland soup or crackers.

Stepping off of the last stair, Astoria called, "Ginny? Can you come help me so I can flip on the lights?"

"Yeah, hang on!" Ginny's voice called, and Astoria felt the tray lift from her hand in the dark. Smiling, she turned to the wall and turned on the light switch, illuminating the room. She went over to Ginny and handed her the newspaper, and she took it willingly, a slight smile on her face.

Ginny Potter had changed a lot since she first came to Astoria and Draco's house a couple of weeks ago. She was very thin, and the white t-shirt and black leggings Astoria had lent her seemed baggy. She was much paler than usual, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her usually bright red hair had lost a lot of it's luster, but she was alive.

Frowning, Ginny looked up from the newspaper, one of the cookies half-eaten in her hand. "They're calling off my search party?" she questioned, confusion evident on her face. "Somehow I don't believe that."

"Well," Astoria started, "There's something I didn't tell you."

Ginny glared at her, irritated. "What? Did Bellatrix threaten them? Did someone else get hurt? Astoria you said no one else would get hurt because of this!"

"Yes and no," she replied calmly, biting her lip. "She told them to call off the Ministry search or she'd kill you, so you should probably be glad that they did. No one has been hurt as far as I'm aware, though."

"What do you mean they?" Ginny asked, her eyebrows creased with worry; it was clear she already knew exactly what she meant.

"She sent it to your brother and Hermione's house, but she told them to show it to Harry too," Astoria answered, "But I think they might've bent around her terms."

"What do you mean?" Ginny inquired, sitting down on the wooden box that was her chair. "How can you go around that?"

"Bellatrix told them to call off the Ministry search," she said. "She said absolutely nothing about them looking for you on their own."

Ginny looked worried at this. "Astoria, we were betting on them coming here with Ministry back up. I don't know if they can still do this on their own."

Astoria looked shocked. "It's Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. It's the Golden Trio. They fought and defeated the Dark Lord, I think they'll be able to handle his second in command."

"They're old," Ginny said, "Way older than they were last time. They're not exactly the spry, adventurous revolutionary dropouts that they used to be."

"Bellatrix is old too," Astoria argued, "As long as we follow our plan, it'll work; it doesn't matter if it's just the three of them or if they have an entire army behind them. It will work, Ginny."

"Yeah, but Bellatrix has an army, Astoria; a legitimate army," Ginny countered, "They're going to bring who?"

"Hermione told me during lunch that Harry was trying to round up member's of Dumbledore's Army," she answered, "And I'd be willing to bet that the old members of the Order of the Phoenix are going to help too. Sure, they're brave, but they aren't stupid."

"What if Bellatrix figures out what we're-" Ginny started to say, but she stopped suddenly, her body freezing and her mouth gaping open in mid-sentence.

"Ginny, what-" Astoria began to question, but she was cut off by a piercingly cold voice.

"I knew I should've listened to Greyback when he said that you weren't on our side, Astoria."

Bellatrix walked up behind her, grabbing the back of her hair and spinning her around roughly, her face an inch from hers. "Did you _really think_ you would get away with helping this filthy little blood traitor?"

Astoria was frozen; her wand had fallen out of her hand in shock, and Bellatrix saw it, kicking it behind her. "What a shame, Draco is going to be so disappointed," Bellatrix mumbled, using her free hand to pull her wand from her pocket, grazing it along the side of Astoria's face.

In that moment, she found her voice and said strongly, "If you kill me, Draco won't work for you. And if you kill Draco, you lose Lucius and Narcissa. Killing me would set off a chain reaction that you don't want, Bellatrix."

Bellatrix laughed, a high cold laugh that sent a shiver down Astoria's spine. "Oh no, I'm not going to kill you. You're just going to have to be kept under close watch, and little Miss Blood Traitor over there," she said, glancing at Ginny, who was frozen in her tracks, "will need a new guard."

"Who do you plan on having watching me?" Astoria asked, her voice shaking.

"I think I'll take that job," said a gravelly voice as it's owner descended the stairs.

Fenrir Greyback walked over to the two women, grabbing Astoria's arm roughly, to the point that his long, yellow nails punctured her skin and she let out a squeal of pain. "I'll make sure this little one doesn't go anywhere, Madam Lestrange."

"And if she tries to escape, Greyback?" Bellatrix questioned, moving over to Ginny and grabbing her arm tightly.

He looked down at Astoria, smiling a sharp-toothed, bloodstained grin. "If she tries, I'll tear her throat out," he whispered, using his free hand to stroke Astoria's face, a look of longing in his eyes. "She looks like a delicious snack."

Astoria's eyes widened, and she tried to pull herself from his grip, but he just grabbed her around the neck, squeezing tightly. "Don't even think about it," he growled, slackening his grip and letting her gasp for air.

Bellatrix grinned, nodding and saying, "Perfect. And you, little missy, are not getting as much freedom as we've been giving you."

Reaching into her pocket, Bellatrix pulled out a small jar with tiny holes in the lid. Before any of them had the time to ask what it was, she pointed her wand at Ginny and shouted, "_Reducio!"_ And all Astoria could do was watch in shock as a now six inch tall Ginny was shoved into the tiny jar, which was safely tucked back into Bellatrix's robes.

Turning to Greyback, she said, "Keep her in your personal quarters, and every time Draco asks to see her, harm her in some way. Make sure he knows about these terms. I don't care if you use magic or your fangs, but don't let him see her until you've done so, and while they speak, do not leave the room. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Madam Lestrange," Greyback drawled, tightening his grip on Astoria's arm.

"Good," she responded, smiling. "Then I will see you tonight." With a quick wink, Bellatrix turned and disapparated.

"Well," Greyback said, looking down at Astoria with a terrifying smirk. "Guess it's just you and me now, doll."


End file.
